A skeleton key (also known as a passingkey) is either a key that has been altered in such a way as to bypass the wards placed inside a warded lock, or a card that contains information necessary to open locks for a certain area like a hotel etc., or an American term for a lever or "bit" type key. The term derives from the fact that the key has been reduced to its essential parts.
The term "skeleton key", in a more general sense, is also sometimes used in reference to key or similar object capable of opening any lock regardless of make or type. The term refers to the skeletal structure which can bypass all locks. The term is also often misapplied to refer to any antique key.
Read more about Skeleton Key: Warded Locks, Lever Lock Keys, Basketball Analogy, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words skeleton and/or key:
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
—John Simon (b. 1925)
“Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Luke, 11:52.