skeleton crew | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,originallymilitary,nautical)Acrewconsistingof theminimumnumberofpersonnelneededtomaintainandoperatethebasicfunctionsof something, such as abusiness, afactory, or aship.Coordinate term:skeleton staff1834March 4, Duke of Buckingham [Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos], “Impressment of Seamen”, inHansard’s Parliamentary Debates:[…]Third Series;[…](House of Commons), volume XXI, London:[…]T[homas]C[urson]Hansard,[…], for Baldwin and Cradock;[…],→OCLC,column1073:[T]he ships of the English navy were left withskeleton crewsof the most wretched kind and description.1838,[Frederick] Chamier, chapter XIV, inJack Adams, the Mutineer.[…], volume I, London:Henry Colburn,[…],→OCLC,page270:But when night came on, the wind died away, and theskeleton crew, revived by hope, actually took to the oars, and used them to some effect.1895March 2, “Naval Appropriation Bill”, inCongressional Record:[…](United States Senate, 53rdCongress, 3rd session), volume XXVII, Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office, published1895,→OCLC,page3120:Mr.[Benjamin Franklin]Tracy, the former Secretary[of the Navy], in a conversation with the present Secretary, stated that his policy with the battle ships, had he continued in office, would have been to lay them up the greater part of the year with merelyskeleton crewson board, and keep them in good and efficient trim for an emergency when necessary.1945August 4,Franklin D’Olier, chairman, “Appendix IV: Air Raid Reports (Translations)”, in[anonymous], transl.,Ludwigshafen-Oppau Works of IG Farbenindustrie AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany(United States Strategic Bombing Survey;117), 2nd edition,[Washington, D.C.]: Oil Division,[United States Strategic Bombing Survey], published January 1947,→OCLC,page99:In Building Op 750, 2 phosphorus incendiaries penetrated the roof without damage. Eighteen phosphorus incendiaries fell on Op 450 and penetrated the roof, but were extinguished by theskeleton crewwithout damage.2022November 4,Kate Conger,Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, “Confusion and frustration reign asElon Muskcuts half of Twitter's staff”, inThe New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.:The New York Times Company,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon13 March 2025:The internet technology team—which is partly responsible for keeping the site functioning—became "askeleton crew," two people said.

Examples:

EN: "The crew had shore leave every night so only a skeleton crew remained on watch."
ES: "Y que, de noche, hubo un cuerpo de guardia muy reducido."
EN: You'll have to get by with a skeleton crew.
ES: Arrégleselas con esa tripulación.
EN: - We're working a skeleton crew.
ES: - La tripulación es mínima.
EN: If you need three or four days for pick-up shots we'll use a skeleton crew.
ES: Si necesitas hacer tomas extras después no será imposible.
EN: Near the river, a railway spur, a fire in the neighborhood, small factory, probably with just a skeleton crew.
ES: Cerca del río, un ramal de ferrocarril, fuego en el barrio, una fábrica... probablemente con una grúa básica.
EN: You don't close down an operation and keep a skeleton crew inside just because you think there might be a slight fault.
ES: No se cierra una operación y deja al equipo dentro sólo porque piensa que podría haber una pequeña falla.
EN: We only have a skeleton crew aboard.
ES: Sólo tenemos una tripulación mínima a bordo.
EN: The ship's in pieces and we've got less than a skeleton crew.
ES: La nave no está lista y tenemos poca tripulación.
EN: Separate the saucer section. Assign a skeleton crew to create a diversion.
ES: Separar la nave para distraer al enemigo.
EN: We're operating on a skeleton crew.
ES: La tripulación ahora es mínima.
EN: Until the disturbance ends, the station has a skeleton crew.
ES: Hasta que finalice la distorsión la estación mantiene una tripulación mínima.
EN: I'll leave a skeleton crew on board the ship.
ES: Reduciré la tripulación al máximo.
EN: The skeleton crew on the Enterprise is unable to look for Cmdr Data.
ES: El personal mínimo a bordo no puede ayudar a localizar al teniente Data.
EN: They knew we'd be a skeleton crew.
ES: Sabian que hoy seriamos pocos.
EN: Now, to minimize our losses, I'll take a skeleton crew.
ES: Para minimizar las pérdidas, llevaré una tripulación mínima.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).