skeleton

ot noun

1. An anthropomorphic representation of a skeleton. She dressed up as a skeleton for Halloween.
2. A very thin person. She lost so much weight while she was ill that she became a skeleton.
3. The central core of something that gives shape to the entire structure. The skeleton of the organisation is essentially the same as it was ten years ago, but many new faces have come and gone.
4. A client-helper procedure that communicates with a stub. In remote method invocation, the client helper is a ‘stub’ and the service helper is a ‘skeleton’.

fe’l verb

1. To reduce to a skeleton; to skin; to skeletonize
2. To minimize