Skeletonise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To strip something down to its essential framework ; to clean the flesh away from a body until only the bones remain ; to draw or lay out a rough outline of a plan
2. To cut back a structure to its basic bones ; to take the meat off a carcass so only the skeleton is left ; to produce a preliminary sketch showing the main shape of something
3. To reduce an object or idea to its bare essentials ; to strip the soft tissue from a dead animal leaving the framework of bones ; to block out the basic form of a project

Etymology: "Skeletonise" is the British spelling of "skeletonize," and it builds on a word that began as a medical and anatomical term. "Skeleton" comes from Greek "skeletos," meaning "dried up" or "withered," and it originally referred to a dried-out body, a sense that eventually gave way to the frame of bones that holds an animal's body together. The suffix "-ize," from Greek "-izein," turns a noun into a verb meaning to make or treat in a certain way, so the verb carries the sense of reducing something to its bare framework. The verb's usual sense is literal: to reduce a leaf, a fish, or a building to its bare structure, or to strip a text, design, or plan down to its core parts. From there it became a handy figure for any process that removes everything except what holds the thing together, such as cutting a list of proposals down to the few that matter.

Synonyms: strip, gut, pare down, reduce, denude

Antonyms: flesh out, embellish, fill out