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A skeleton; anything anatomized or dissected, or which has the appearance of being so. The anatomy of a little child, representing all parts thereof, is accounted a greater rarity than the skeleton of a man in full stature. Fuller. They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy. Shak.…

United by, or provided with, articulations; jointed; as, an articulated skeleton.

A joint or juncture between bones in the skeleton.

hich, articulates; as: (a) One who enunciates distinctly. (b) One who prepares and mounts skeletons. (c) An instrument to cure stammering.

A skeleton. [Ludicrous] Shak.

Belonging to the axis of the body; as, the axial skeleton; or to the axis of any appendage or organ; as, the axial bones. Axial line (Magnetism), the line taken by the magnetic force in passing from one pole of a horseshoe magnet to the other. Faraday.

The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcic carbonate, calcic phosphate, and gelatine; as, blood and bone.

The framework or skeleton upon which a regiment is to be formed; the officers of a regiment forming the staff. [Written also cader.]

A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, as a ball valve.

lar ligament (Anat.), a ligamentous bag or capsule surrounding many movable joints in the skeleton.

The abandoned and decaying remains of some bulky and once comely thing, as a ship; the skeleton, or the uncovered or unfinished frame, of a thing. A rotten carcass of a boat. Shak.

Having the skeleton in the state of cartilage, the bones containing little or no calcareous matter; said of certain fishes, as the sturgeon and the sharks.

An order of sponges in which the skeleton consists of horny fibers. It includes all the commercial sponges.

of ganoid fishes, including the sturgeons; -- so called on account of their cartilaginous skeleton.

Having a cartilaginous skeleton. -- n.

A group of fishes, characterized by cartilaginous fins and skeleton. It includes both ganoids (sturgeons, etc.) and selachians (sharks), but is now often restricted to the latter. [Written also Chondropterygia.]

An order of fishes, including the sturgeons; -- so named because the skeleton is cartilaginous.

The hard parts or skeleton of various Anthozoa, and of a few Hydrozoa. Similar structures are also formed by some Bryozoa.

The coral or skeleton of a zoöphyte, whether calcareous of horny, simple or compound. See Coral.

The shelly skeleton of a sea urchin.