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Skeleton crew
noun
The minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item at its most simple operating requirements, such as a ship or business, during an emergency or shut down, and at the same time, to keep vital functions operating.
Exact(60)
There was a skeleton crew.
On Monday, the skeleton crew was down to roughly 70.
"We're still down to a skeleton crew," she said.
The members of the Avengers' skeleton crew fight alongside him.
Only a skeleton crew would stay on overseas.
Work with available light, a skeleton crew and unsung actors.
One day, driving around, he passed a man camp under construction, housing a skeleton crew.
The skeleton crew that remained at Univision needed, among other things, a nightly-news anchor.
With a skeleton crew, the movie was shot in just 12 days.
At one point, Dornstein visited Libyan state television and found a skeleton crew still working there.
For a while, a copy editor fleshed out the skeleton crew.
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