Search the Dictionary

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.

A representation of two of the leg bones or arm bones of a skeleton, laid crosswise, often surmounted with a skull, and serving as a symbol of death. Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrios emblems of mortality. Hawthorne.

Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe. Death! great proprietor of all. Young. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that at on him was Death. Rev. vi. 8.

ze (whence the name). Notwithstanding their size, they present birdlike characters in the skeleton, esp. in the pelvis and hind limbs. Some walked on their three-toed hind feet, thus producing the large "bird tracks," so-called, of mesozoic sandstones; others were five-toed and quadrupedal. See Illust. of Compsognathus…

One who disarticulates and prepares skeletons.

A subclass of fishes, comprising the sharks, the rays, and the Chimæra. The skeleton is mainly cartilaginous.

Pertaining to, or connected with, the endoskeleton; as, endoskeletal muscles.

Above, or on the dorsal side of, the axis of the skeleton; episkeletal.

Above or outside of the endoskeleton; epaxial.

A prefix signifying out of, outside; as in exocarp, exogen, exoskeleton.

Pertaining to the exoskeleton; as exoskeletal muscles.