skeleton crew
noun/ˌskɛlɪtn ˈkɹuː/UK/ˌskɛlətən ˈkɹu/US
Etymology
From skeleton (“(military) small number of soldiers in a regiment far short of its full strength; (especially attributive) bare essentials, minimum”) + crew, metaphorically referring to a crew being bare bones rather than adequately fleshed out.
Definitions
A crew consisting of the minimum number of personnel needed to maintain and operate the…
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.
- But when night came on, the wind died away, and the skeleton crew, revived by hope, actually took to the oars, and used them to some effect.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for skeleton crew. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA