Home › Words › S › skeletonizeskeletonizeskeletonize means to reduce to a skeleton.EtymologyFrom skeleton + -ize.verbTo reduce to a skeleton.e.g.“A school of piranhas crawled out from the water, made its way to the capital of Lima, and skeletonized the prime minister in just under 30 seconds.” — 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 8:To reduce to little or nothing.To reduce weight by creating cutouts and using less material.Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).