skelder

[Etym. doubtful; perhaps allied to skellum (q. v.).] A vagabond, a vagrant. skěl děr, v. t. or i. [SKELDER, 8.] To swindle, to trick. "Wandering abroad to skelder for a shilling." Marmion: Fine Companion, iii. 4. skěl-et, s. [SKELETON.] A mummy. ( Holland: Plutarch's Morals; Explan. of Words.) skěl-ět-al, adj. [Eng. skelet (on); -al.] Of or pertaining to a skeleton. IMG:content-1535.png:[blocks in formation] A. As substantive: I. Literally : 1. Ordinary Language: *(1) A dried mummy. (2) In the same sense as II. (3) The supporting framework of anything; the principal parts which support anything, but without the appendages. (4) A very lean or thin person. (5) An outline, rough draft, or sketch of any kind; the heads and outline of a literary composition. "The dead carcase or skeleton of the old Moschical philosophy, namely, the atomical physiology."-Cudworth: Intellectual System , p. 51. 2. Fig .: Something annoying, usually kept secret. "No skeleton is allowed to remain peacefully in his cupboard."-London Daily News. II. Anat .: The support or framework of an animal body, in life protecting the central parts of the nervous system, and forming a fulcrum for the limbs. It is made up of different parts in the human adult of 198 separate bones. The skeleton proper consists of the skull and bones of the trunk, the pectoral and pelvic limbs forming the appendicular skeleton, the whole constituting the interior or endoskeleton. This, when removed from the body for purposes of examination and study, is termed a natural skeleton, if connected by the dried ligaments; an artificial skeleton, if the various bones are joined together by wire; and a disarticu. lated skeleton, if the bones are separated from each other. In the majority of vertebrates the skeleton is o eous; in some fishes it is cartilaginous, and in the Lancelet ( Branch ios tom a lanceo latum) the vertebral column is reduced to a notochord. [CHORDA-DORSAL IS.] Owen looks upon the endoskeleton as a whole made up of three parts: The neuroskeleton, the scleroskeleton, and the splanchnoskeleton. (See these words.) In the typical skeleton the axial or chief portion comprises the skull, the vertebral column, the sternum, and the ribs. The anterior or pectoral portion of the appendicular skeleton consists of the humerus, the radius, and ulna, and the carpals metacarpals, and phalanges. The posterior or, pelvic portion consists of the femur, the tibia and fibula, the tarsals, metatarsal-, and phalanges. In the Pinni. pedia, Cetacea, and Fishes all four limbs are modified; in Bats and Birds the pectoral limbs evolve as organs of flight; in the Pythons the pelvic, and in some lizards- e . g ., the Slow-worm-both Slow-worm pelvic and pectoral limbs are rudimentary. [VESTIGE.] There is no endoskeleton in the Invertebrata, though the internal bone of some of the Cephalopod a may foreshadow the neuroskeleton, as the phragmacone foreshadows the splanchnoskeleton. The armadillo, crocodile, and the sturgeon among Vertebrates, and 3707 skew round: operculum paucispiral. Number of species doubtful. Distribution, Norway and Britain, . Found under stones at low water. (S. P. Wood ward .)