skeletonize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to reduce to a skeleton, outline, or framework.
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to reduce in size or number, as a military unit.
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to construct in outline.
verb
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to reduce to a minimum framework, number, or outline
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to create the essential framework of
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of skeletonize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It will skeletonize the leaves of plants and eat flowers such as roses.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
To achieve even 120 wings, the Air Force would have to skeletonize transport and tactical units and cut its long-range assault outfit, the atom-bomb-carrying Strategic Air Command, from 57 to 52 wings.
From Time Magazine Archive
Q. Could the Defense Secretary skeletonize the corps?
From Time Magazine Archive
We skeletonize our thoughts behind the scenes, but the skeleton is rather an unsightly specimen to exhibit before a class.
From Principles of Teaching by Bennion, Adam S.
Small specimens which it is proposed to skeletonize are best preserved entire in alcoholic solution as loss and breakage are thus prevented.
From Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit A Guide for Those Who Wish to Prepare and Mount Animals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles, etc., for Home, Den, or Office Decoration by Farnham, Albert B.
Television footage showed the dead whale being carefully lifted by a crane and transported to the burial site, where it will stay underground for a few years until it becomes naturally skeletonized.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
“But will OC Weekly be better off freed from Davy Jones’ locker, only to be added to Calle’s portfolio of once powerful yet now skeletonized sister papers?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
The river sluices through a misty forest of lodgepole pines and Douglas firs, many skeletonized by wildfires, and starts into five miles of nearly continuous rapids.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022
DNA obtained from the skeletonized remains, which were found in Missoula County in September 1985, was compared to commercial databases and was traced to the family of Janet Lee Lucas of Spokane, Washington.
From Washington Times ● May 10, 2021
During his own medical education Holmes had seen firsthand how desperate schools were to acquire corpses, whether freshly dead or skeletonized.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Adults damage plants by skeletonizing the leaves, and they also feed on buds, flowers and fruit.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
The adult beetles damage plants by skeletonizing the leaves.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2022
It would have been nice to see someone take the successful “Game of Thrones” formula and expand on or enhance it, but “Marco Polo” ends up skeletonizing it.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2014
I have seen hordes of beetles gather in these trees in July and August, skeletonizing the leaves until the defoliation reached 40% or more.
From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Pleasant Valley, New York, August 28, 29 and 30, 1950 by Northern Nut Growers Association
Also complete instructions in leaf photography, plant printing, and the skeletonizing of leaves.
From All Adrift or The Goldwing Club by Optic, Oliver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
