How to Use bare-bones in a Sentence

bare-bones

1 of 2 adjective
  • This is a bare-bones production with no lavish set or winding staircase.
    Barbara Schuler, Travel + Leisure, 28 Oct. 2024
  • Shopify is one of the few top e-commerce platforms that offers a service tier below $29 per month, with its bare-bones, $5-per-month Starter tier.
    Robert Anderson, PCMAG, 22 Oct. 2024
  • Some are bare-bones: a single responder with a phone on 24 hours a day.
    Lauren Peace, CNN, 27 Mar. 2024
  • The Inspire 3 is pretty bare-bones, but that’s by design.
    Brandon Widder, The Verge, 10 June 2023
  • This one adds an extra hanging rod and even shelves to a bare-bones, one-rod closet.
    Lisa Lombardi, wsj.com, 15 Sep. 2023
  • For decades, Notepad has been a bare-bones text editor found in Windows.
    Michael Kan, PCMAG, 22 Mar. 2024
  • The first movie had a bare-bones plot, a skeleton scaffolding on which to hang set piece after set piece.
    Alison Herman, Variety, 20 Sep. 2023
  • The original Halo Band was a bare-bones tracker that launched in 2020.
    Victoria Song, The Verge, 26 Apr. 2023
  • Today the timbers of the ship are stored in a bare-bones warehouse in an industrial park.
    William Booth, Washington Post, 11 June 2023
  • There are, of course, many more options for buyers who aren't inclined to stick to the bare-bones off-roader setup.
    Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 18 May 2023
  • For a more bare-bones service, Tailor Brands is a standout option.
    Jasmin Suknanan, CNBC, 16 Aug. 2024
  • But by 2009, according to users, Reddit’s website was as bare-bones as before the sale.
    Paresh Dave, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024
  • Grilling and barbecue have, for decades, been pretty bare-bones affairs.
    Chris Morris, Fortune, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Today, the bare-bones base still attracts hard-core skiers who don’t mind using an outhouse and preparing meals on a camp stove.
    Jen Murphy, Robb Report, 3 Feb. 2024
  • The plan was bare-bones, but showed that a reboot was at least under consideration.
    WIRED, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Many are still outside the country, but some remained, or returned for bare-bones productions such as this one.
    Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2024
  • McCollum brought that rough recording to Randall, who prefers that bare-bones format.
    Tom Roland, Billboard, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Parshall: That last comment came from Ron Gordon, the patent agent and former physicist, who didn’t see a whole lot of value in Cleo’s bare-bones answer.
    Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 14 June 2023
  • But much of the buzz faded somewhat in the weeks that followed as users realized the bare-bones platform still lacked many of the features that made X popular with users.
    Catherine Thorbecke, CNN, 11 Sep. 2023
  • The press corps that evening had been bare-bones—maybe three other print reporters plus a few photographers and local-TV cameras.
    Kyle Paoletta, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
  • Similarly, the cross-country team for years survived on a bare-bones budget.
    Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2023
  • Classic Mint Julep Whiskey, simple syrup and a modicum of walloped mint leaves: A bare-bones drink that feels like the essence of a sultry summer afternoon.
    Scott Hocker, theweek, 20 June 2024
  • The end result is an Apple Podcasts that no longer resembles the bare-bones podcast player of the 2010s and looks more like, well, Spotify.
    Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 26 Sep. 2023
  • The actual indictment of Mr. Trump produced by Mr. Bragg’s office is more bare-bones.
    Story Hinckley, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Remember, Threads launched as a bare-bones 1.0 beta version.
    Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 20 July 2023
  • In a sport often played in front of parents and friends in bare-bones gyms, that carries an intimidation factor.
    Theo MacKie, The Arizona Republic, 25 Feb. 2023
  • Unlike these consumer devices, though, PCC servers are as bare-bones as possible.
    Lily Hay Newman, WIRED, 11 Sep. 2024
  • How much help would come from their bare-bones insurance policy or FEMA?
    Jenna Russell, New York Times, 15 July 2023
  • The games are closer to a crossword puzzle or Wordle, feature bare-bones graphics, and should take only a few minutes per day to complete.
    Michael Kan, PCMAG, 1 May 2024
  • Nothing special, no electronics, just a bare-bones setup with a paddle bracket and a base for my Go Pro camera.
    Jim Gronaw, Baltimore Sun, 2 July 2023
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bare bones

2 of 2 plural noun
  • With the bare bones in place, the problem became the décor.
    Ruth Bloomfield, WSJ, 7 Oct. 2020
  • Thanks to some clever knife skills, all the meat on the wing is pushed to the top, leaving one end with just bare bone.
    Nick Kindelsperger, chicagotribune.com, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Like those big booming punts and the bare bones punt return room?
    Jeff Sentell, ajc, 19 Sep. 2017
  • All spaces were taken down to the bare bones during the project, which started in the spring of 2018.
    Jesse Leavenworth, courant.com, 26 Aug. 2019
  • The two men traded a few ideas, and Harjo wrote up some notes, just the bare bones of a concept for a show.
    David Treuer, The Atlantic, 1 Aug. 2022
  • For now, though, the bare bones approach has proved durable enough through the pandemic.
    Ian McNulty, NOLA.com, 17 Nov. 2020
  • The Marlins are stripping the team down to the bare bones, and this year their fans won't have the All-Star Game to at least look forward to.
    Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2018
  • Other than a glamorous past, what was the allure of those bare bones?
    Douglas Brenner, House Beautiful, 9 Dec. 2013
  • On the other hand, Liverpool are somewhat down to the bare bones of the squad in the business end of the season.
    SI.com, 5 May 2018
  • The upper bunk is bare bones with no windows and a strap so that no one falls out when the train lurches.
    BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2021
  • His denim-on-denim look the day before was just as bare bones, and just as good.
    Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 2 Oct. 2017
  • The rest of the game is obvious, because tennis is as bare bones as sports come.
    Kevin Nguyen, GQ, 26 June 2018
  • Urban Growler was at bare bones staffing, down from more than 50 workers to around 20, Loch said.
    Jessie Van Berkel Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Students who want more than the bare bones are looking at their options.
    Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 29 Apr. 2020
  • This bare bones edition is certainly fine and will get you through many a meal.
    Shilpa Uskokovic, Bon Appétit, 28 June 2022
  • At $600-million, the complex is anything but bare bones.
    James S. Russell, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2023
  • Maybe the barest bones of such preparation are beginning to emerge.
    Tim Lister, CNN, 15 Apr. 2018
  • Hardy found that these bare bones were enough to get all that familiar quantum stuff back again.
    Quanta Magazine, 30 Aug. 2017
  • The task has not been easy from the start, as bare bones and outdated information leads to dead ends.
    Kristina Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Oct. 2020
  • Leicester will be down to the bare bones in the centre of midfield, with Matty James sidelined for the rest of the season with an Achilles problem.
    SI.com, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Suddenly, a position with scant depth was down to its bare bones.
    Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2022
  • So what are like the bare bones of a traditional Hindu wedding?
    Quartz Staff, Quartz, 21 Feb. 2022
  • The Element, on the other hand, is the bed-in-box company’s most basic option, with just the bare bones of a great mattress.
    Kami Phillips, CNN Underscored, 4 Aug. 2020
  • Auditors in many countries are already required to add flesh to the bare bones of the audit opinion.
    The Economist, 24 May 2018
  • There are countless variations to be discovered among the bare bones of this kind of story.
    Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 1 Feb. 2022
  • The space has been stripped down to its bare bones: The main floor, a mezzanine, the vault room, the deck and the impressive front entrance from the building's original use as a bank.
    Polly Campbell, Cincinnati.com, 30 Jan. 2020
  • For those of you who have not read my work here, here are the bare bones of my position player evaluation method.
    Tony Blengino, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2022
  • With its chalky white walls and grey floors, a retail space located in a strip mall near downtown Birmingham looks like the bare bones of a dream.
    al, 31 Dec. 2020
  • My parents’ wedding was very bare bones, so, to me, I was always deterred from having a big wedding.
    Claire Stern, ELLE, 16 July 2023
  • Faux puts meat on those bare bones by escorting his readers to many of the epicenters of the crypto scam — Miami, the Bahamas, the Philippines and more.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bare-bones.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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