skeleton crew
/ˌskɛlətən ˈkɹu/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.75 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[T]he ships of the English navy were left with skeleton crews of the most wretched kind and description."
- "But when night came on, the wind died away, and the skeleton crew, revived by hope, actually took to the oars, and used them to some effect."
- "Mr. [Benjamin Franklin] Tracy, the former Secretary [of the Navy], in a conversation with the present Secretary, stated that his policy with the battle ships, had he continued in office, would have been to lay them up the greater part of the year with merely skeleton crews on board, and keep them in good and efficient trim for an emergency when necessary."
- "In Building Op 750, 2 phosphorus incendiaries penetrated the roof without damage. Eighteen phosphorus incendiaries fell on Op 450 and penetrated the roof, but were extinguished by the skeleton crew without damage."
- "The internet technology team—which is partly responsible for keeping the site functioning—became "a skeleton crew," two people said."
Etymology
From skeleton (“(military) small number of soldiers in a regiment far short of its full strength; (especially attributive) bare essentials, minimum”) + crew, metaphorically referring to a crew being bare bones rather than adequately fleshed out.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)kelh₁-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌskɛlətən ˈkɹu/
- British English: /ˌskɛlɪtn ˈkɹuː/