▪ I. ˈskelet Obs. exc. dial.
Also 6 skelette, 7 scelet.
[ad. older F. (16th cent.) sc-, sk-, squelete (also sch-, squelet, etc.; mod.F. squelette), or Gr. σκελετ-ός, -όν: see skeleton n.]
1. A skeleton. Also fig.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Forma ossea,..a skelette. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. Explan. Words, Scelet..is taken also for a dead carcasse of man or woman, represented with the bones onely, and ligaments. 1621 S. Ward Life of Faith 24 For what should I cast away speech vpon scelets and skulles, carnall men I meane. 1707 Sir J. Lauder Decis. Suppl. (1826) IV. 673 The Lords thought this decreet had not so much as the visage and scelet of a decreet. 1720 Pennecuik Helicon (ed. 2) 146 The Skelet now hath got his Breast-Plate on. a 1904 in Eng. Dial. Dict. (Cornwall), She's nothing but a walking skelet. |
† 2. A mummy. Obs. rare.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 328 To bring in place..at their feasts a Scelet, that is to say, a drie and withered anatomie of a dead man. |
▪ II. skelet
obs. form of skillet1.