Word.ws English Dictionary

skeleton crews

skeleton crews is the plural of skeleton crew.

Meaning of skeleton crew

Noun

skeleton crew (plural skeleton crews)

  1. (idiomatic) A crew consisting of the minimum number of personnel needed to maintain and operate the basic functions of something, such as a business, a factory, or a ship.
    • [T]he ships of the English navy were left with skeleton crews of the most wretched kind and description.1834 March 4, Duke of Buckingham [Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos], “Impressment of Seamen”, in Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: […] Third Series...

Questions about skeleton crews

What is skeleton crews the plural of?
Skeleton crews is the plural of skeleton crew.

Words near skeleton crews in the dictionary

  1. skeleton at the feast
  2. skeleton clique
  3. skeleton clock
  4. skeleton clocks
  5. skeleton crew
  6. skeleton crews
  7. skeleton flower
  8. skeleton grip
  9. skeleton grips
  10. skeleton in one's closet
  11. skeleton in one's cupboard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skeleton crews (page history and authors); skeleton crew (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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