skeleton crew
6
4.0
- noun
- /ˈskɛlɪtən kru/
:
personal mínimo
- While the majority of the team was battling the elements, a skeleton crew stayed in East Lansing to train for the Head of the Charles.
And we'll do this with a skeleton crew.
- And we'll do this with a skeleton crew.
- I mean, one thing though, So right now most courthouses are down to what they're called a skeleton crew.
- And it burned all weekend because there was a skeleton crew on the on the the weekends, you know, there's hardly any guards and they don't look outside.
Examples
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We have been operating on a skeleton crew ever since Katrina, and we're very backed up.
-
Recently, it was suggested that Silicon Knights was operating on a skeleton crew.
Blog text (32) -
Town Hall has a skeleton crew and will close at noon today and be closed all day tomorrow.
Blog text (6) -
Companies have laid off their employees and are running on skeleton crews.
Blog text (28) -
There's no way with this skeleton crew that we're going to be able to handle it.
-
Then, through a legal insolvency tool, Perlman transferred all of OnLive's assets to a brand new company and took over as CEO, hiring back only a skeleton crew to keep the ship afloat.
Blog text (11) -
I sat thinking for five minutes in the quiet building, the building that was down to just two overnight guards—a skeleton crew—since TOS oversaw security and controlled all the locks inside and out.
Fiction book (1995) -
Since it's Christmas Eve, we only need a skeleton crew tonight.
-
We run a skeleton crew on the weekend to keep the store operational.
-
Jacob, the Popeyes franchisee, said several of his stores are working with skeleton crews to maintain service.
Antonyms
How Many
∞
1.3
6
4.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression uses 'skeleton' in a figurative sense (bare/minimal structure) combined with 'crew' to mean the minimum staff needed, so the overall meaning can be derived if the learner recognises the non-literal use of 'skeleton'. Because a B1 learner who only knows the literal sense of 'skeleton' (bones) may not predict this figurative extension, the phrase is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Skeleton crew may come from the image of a skeleton as the bare bones that hold something up and a crew as the workers. It paints a picture of only the smallest team left to keep things running, which is why it means 'the minimum number of people needed to keep a service or business working'.