skeletal frame
1
5.8
- noun
- Specialized
:
estructura esquelética
- The architect designed a skeletal frame to support the new building's massive glass facade.
Examples
-
The old car's skeletal frame was visible underneath the rusted exterior, revealing its fragile structure.
-
Strips of tendon and muscle stretched over the red thing's skeletal frame.
Fiction book (2000) -
Its skeletal frame sat chained up in a Connecticut field, looking like a beast that had been left to starve.
Academic text (2003) -
The artist created a sculpture using a skeletal frame made of metal to give it strength and stability.
Synonyms
183
2.5
A strong structure that holds a building, vehicle, or piece of furniture
29
3.5
A structure of parts that holds something up, like a stage
12
4.3
An internal frame of parts that gives shape and strength to a building or machine
3
4.6
A set of bones that supports and gives shape to a person or animal
1
7.5
A strong frame used to hold and shape a sculpture while it is made
A hidden part under a vehicle or machine that gives it strength
How Complete
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'skeletal' (pertaining to a skeleton-like structure) modifies 'frame' (the principal structural skeleton), so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer a supporting internal structure. This follows a common noun–noun/adj–noun formation and is cross-linguistically transparent, making the phrase easily predictable from its parts.
Etymology
The term skeletal frame comes from the picture of a skeleton: like bones inside a body, the skeletal and frame together mean the strong inner structure that holds things up. So, it means the inner part that 'supports' and gives the 'shape' of a building or object.