skeleton key

noun

plural skeleton keys

: a key with a large part of the bit filed away to enable it to open low quality locks as a master key

called also passkey

Examples of skeleton key in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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Art and music and film and dance and so many other pieces of work where people just put their blood and guts into it, those things have been skeleton keys for me. —

Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 19 Aug. 2024 Stem cells can divide and renew themselves over a long period of time and are kind of like a skeleton key. —

Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 1 Aug. 2024 First, Microsoft should not have had a single skeleton key that, when inevitably stolen, could be used to forge access to different customers’ private communications. —

Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 27 July 2023 Bill explained that on the sills over several of the doors, there sit different skeleton keys. —

Lennie Omalza, The Courier-Journal, 24 Aug. 2023 See all Example Sentences for skeleton key