▪ I. bone, n.
(bəʊn)
Forms: 1 bán, baan, 2–3 ban, 3–5 bon, (4 boen, buon), 4–5 boon, (boone, 5 bonne), 3– bone; north. 3–9 bane, 5 baan, bayne; (9 dial. bowne, byen).
[Com. Teut.: OE. bán corresp. to OFris. and OS. bên (MDu., Du., LG. been), OHG. (MHG. and mod.G.) bein, ON. bein (Sw. ben, Da. been):—OTeut. *baino(m), not appearing in Gothic, and (unlike names of parts of the body generally) not related to any words for ‘bone’ outside Teutonic. The ON., OHG., MHG., and Du., have, beside the general sense ‘bone’, the specific sense ‘shank (of the leg)’, which is the ordinary sense in mod.Ger. Hence it has been suggested that the original meaning was ‘long bone’; and that the word may have connexion with the ON. adj. bein-, nom. masc. beinn, ‘straight’. But this is a bare conjecture; the standing of the ON. adj. being itself obscure. In English there has never been any tendency to the specific sense, for which OE. had sceanca shank.]
I. Properly.
1. a. The general name for each of the distinct parts which unitedly make up the skeleton or hard framework of the body of vertebrate animals.
They are distinguished, according to shape, as long, short, flat, and irregular bones; the long bones have an internal channel containing marrow. They are also named from their position, nature, form, etc., e.g. ankle-, arm-, back-, blade-, breast-, collar-, jaw-, splint-, thigh-bone, etc.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xix. 36 Ne for-bræce ᵹe nan ban on him. a 1300 Cursor M. 9405 He wroght a felau of his ban. 1340 Ayenb. 148 Ase þe buones bereþ þe tendre uless. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxxvii. 27 Bones wenten to boones, eche to his ioynture. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. i. (1495) 99 The bones of the breste defende the herte. 1483 Cath. Angl. 20/1 From bane to bane, ossim. 1549 Compl. Scot. 152 The corrupit flesche is consumit fra the banis. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. v. 27 Fie how my bones ake. 1681 E. Sclater Serm. Putney 11 Weapons, that to be sure, draw no Blood, nor break any Bones. 1872 Huxley Phys. i. 10 The bones..are masses either of cartilage, or of connective tissue hardened by being impregnated with phosphate and carbonate of lime. 1873 Mivart Elem. Anat. ii. 23 In the earlier stages of existence there are no bones at all. Prov. Hard words break no bones. |
b. pl. as material for agricultural or industrial processes.
| 1814 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 289 Bones are much used as a manure. 1834 Brit. Husb. I. xix. 396 Turnips..manured with bones. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 307 Bones are extensively employed by the cutler, comb and brush maker, chemist, confectioner, and agriculturist. |
† c. Applied
spec. to the fingers in the asseveration
by these ten bones.
Obs.| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) 4 note, By thes bonys ten thei be to you vntrue. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet C iiij b, Martin sweares by his ten bones. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 193 By these tenne bones..hee did speake them to me. |
d. Proverb. expression:
hard, or dry, as a bone.
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple i, It's as dry as a bone. 1837 R. Nicoll Poems (1843) 83 Dubs were hard as ony bane. |
e. spec. One used by Australian Aborigines when pronouncing certain spells intended to cause sickness or death;
cf. bone v.
1 5.
| 1904 Daily Chron. 16 July 3/3 From one of two causes, either the abduction of a woman or the ‘giving of a bone’, the members of two groups will be at enmity. 1934 A. Russell Tramp-Royal x. 78 ‘Milbuka point bone at Boss Tuck's bruder,’ she muttered stealthily to Tuck in her native English. 1962 John o' London's 22 Mar. 266/1 An aborigine stockboy..is found to have been the victim of ‘bone-pointing’. |
2. pl. a. The whole bones of the body collectively, the skeleton; also, by extension, the bodily frame, body, person (with pathetically humorous force). Phr.
to (live to) make old bones: (
a) with negative: not to live to an old age; (
b) to seem or feel old.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lvii. (1495) 172 The bones ben the sadnesse of the body. a 1400 Sir Perc. 267 Nothyng..That he myȝte inne his bones hyde, Bot a gaytes skynne. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iii. 108 Alarde..beganne to deffende well hys bones. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. III. x. 92/1 He [Latimer] ran as fast as his old bones would carry him. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. v. v. 41 Night hangs vpon mine eyes, my Bones would rest. 1605 Chron. K. Leir, What, breedes young bones already! 1694 Lestrange æsop's Fab. (J.) Puss had a month's mind to be upon the bones of him. 1709 J. Stevens Quevedo's Wks. 305 Feeding on me Day and Night, which has brought me to the very Bones. 1740 Christmas Entertainm. 16 Now (says she) take care of your bones between this and home. 1872 C. Reade Wandering Heir (1905) ix. 175 She..will ne'er make old bones. 1873 M. F. S. Lily Merton's Summer 28 Poor, pale, pretty little dear..she'll never live to make old bones. 1886 M. E. Braddon One Thing Needful i, Lord Lashmar would never make old bones. 1924 R. H. Mottram Spanish Farm i. 75 Poor old father, he's making old bones; it's the boys he misses. 1953 ‘N. Shute’ In Wet viii. 259 Edward the Seventh and George the Fifth—they neither of them made old bones. |
† b. Exclamation:
bones of me! bones of you!| 1588 Marprel. Ep. (Arb.) 44 The puritanes will be O the bones of you too badd for this kind of arguing. 1592 Chettle Kind-harts Dr. (1841) 70 Bones a me! |
c. The bones being the most permanent parts of the dead body, ‘bones’ is put for ‘mortal remains’.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. I. 25 And he cwæþ Lædeþ mine ban of þison lande. c 1205 Lay. 32202 His ban beoð iloken faste i guldene cheste. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 84 Þe Chirche schal haue my Careyne And kepe mi Bones. 1592 Nashe in Shaks. C. Praise 5 Have his bones newe embalmed. 1616 Inscr. over Shakespeare's Grave, Bleste be y⊇ man y{supt} spares thes stones, And cvrst be he y{supt} moves my bones. 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 82. 1255 He will reduce the place, or leave his bones before it. 1750 Gray Elegy xx, These bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial still erected nigh. 1880 Tennyson Columbus, Then some one standing by my grave will say, ‘Behold the bones of Christopher Colon’. |
3. a. The bony structure or substance considered as one of the components of the body; esp in the expressions,
blood and bone,
flesh and bone,
skin and bone,
bred in the bone, etc. (Used as
collect. sing.)
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. ii. 23 Adam ða cwæð ðis is nu ban of minum banum. a 1300 Cursor M. 194 (Gött.) Iesu him raysed in fless and ban. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 25 Loue byndiþ boþe blood & baan. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 72 It will not out of the fleshe that is bred in the bone. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 172 High birth, vigor of bone, desert in seruice. 1611 Bible 2 Sam. xix. 13 Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh? 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. i. 1 What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh. 1837 Dickens Pickw. v, An immense brown horse displaying great symmetry of bone. |
b. to the bone: through the flesh, so as to touch the bone;
hence, to the inmost part, to the core. (
Cf. backbone.) Also similarly
in the bone.
to feel (etc.) in one's bones: to have a sure intuition of (something);
to work one's fingers (or oneself) to the bone: to work extremely hard;
near (occas. close to) the bone: (
a) miserly, niggardly; (
b) hard up, destitute; also
on one's bones, (
N.Z.)
on the bone; (
c) ‘near the knuckle’ (see
knuckle n.).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15788 Ilk dint þat þai him gaf it reked to þe ban. c 1400 Rom. Rose 1059 They prile & poynten The folk right to the bare boon. 1709–10 Tatler (J.), There was lately a young gentleman bit to the bone. 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge liii. 242, I seem to hear it, Muster Gashford, in my wery bones. 1844 in T. W. Barnes Mem. Thurlow Weed (1883) 123 It was in my bones all summer. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. iv. 17 A cook she certainly was, in the very bone and centre of her soul. 1853 [see work v. 19 b]. 1853 Lytton My Novel V. xviii. 80 I'll work my fingers to the bone till I pay back the other five. 1855 M. Thomson Doesticks xvi. 130 For I know that I am charitable; I feel it in my bones, like rheumatism. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) I. iii. xx. 267 He being Calvinist..she Lutheran..and strict to the bone. 1901 Aberdeen Wkly. Free Press 30 Mar. (E.D.D.), I hate yer near the bane wyes. 1912 Mulford & Clay Buck Peters iii. 57 Son, there's a big time due in these parts; I feel it in my bones. 1922 Galsworthy Loyalties i. i. 13 Ronny Dancy's on his bones again, I'm afraid. 1923 Wodehouse Inimit. Jeeves x. 100 That poor, misguided pinhead worked himself to the bone over it. 1933 in Sc. Nat. Dict. s.v. bane, He's awfu' near the bane. 1935 ‘J. Guthrie’ Little Country x. 178 Mr. Winks, who had no other living but politics, had ‘been on the bone’.., scratching an existence from commission work. 1941 A. L. Rowse Tudor Cornwall xiii. 337 Charging him..with having ‘two harlots begotten with child in his own house’... This was getting pretty near the bone. 1947 N. Cardus Autobiogr. 9 He declined, in a family which was always living close to the bone, to take on any job. 1950 A. L. Rowse Engl. of Eliz. v. 162 One sees how much nearer the bone they were in medieval circumstances. |
c. fig.| 1573 R. Scot Hop Gard. Epist., Greedy to tast of the marrowe of gaines and loth to breake the bone of labour. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 84 The real blood and bone of human heroism. 1884 Harper's Mag. Mar. 517/1 The..bone and sinew of the country. |
4. a. The material or substance of the bones (in
prec. senses), which consists of animal matter,
ossein, and salts of carbonate and phosphate of lime in varying proportions.
| 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. i. in Ashm. (1652) 129 Dry as askys of Tre or Bone. 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 45 Many a ring of poised gold and bone. 1814 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 290 The basis of bone is constituted by earthy salts. 1855 Owen Skel. & Teeth 165 The primitive basis, or ‘blastema,’ of bone is a subtransparent glairy matter. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. vi. 83 Implements and weapons formed exclusively of wood and bone and stone. |
b. Applied to other animal substances more or less akin to bone; as the dentine of the teeth, the ivory of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc. (See
whalebone.)
| a 700 Erfurt Gloss. 351 (O.E.T.) Ebor, elpendes ban. c 725 Corpus Gl. 712 Ebor, elpendbaan. c 1205 Lay. 23778 Ane sielde gode he wes al clane of olifantes bane. a 1450 Sir Eglam. 1083 Crystyabelle, yowre doghtur bryght, As whyte as bone of whalle. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 332 His teeth as white as Whales bone. 1616 W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. 67 (N.) An ivory dart she held of good command; White was the bone. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 295 There are upwards of three hundred of these plates of whalebone on each side of the jaw. 1870 Nicholson Zool. 462 The so-called ‘bone’ of the skeleton of Fishes is only occasionally true osseous tissue. |
5. Applied to various articles, originally or usually manufactured of bone, ivory, whalebone, etc.
a. pl. Dice.
| c 1386 etc. [see bicched b]. a 1529 Skelton Wks. (ed. Dyce) I. 52 On the borde he whyrled a payre of bones. 1624 Fletcher Rule a Wife i. Wks. 1778 III. 433 Thou won'st my money too, with a pair of base bones. 1724 Swift Wood's Exec. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 157 Gamester. I'll make his bones rattle. 1822 Scott Nigel xii, If thine ears have heard the clatter of the devil's bones. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lxvii. No, no, Becky..We must have the bones in. |
b. pl. Pieces of bone struck or rattled, to make rude music;
esp. two pieces of bone or ivory held between the fingers of each hand and rattled together as an accompaniment to the banjo or other instrument; chiefly used by ‘nigger minstrels’. Also
humorously used as a name for the player. (
Cf. also
marrowbone.)
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 33 Wilt thou heare some musicke..Let vs haue the tongs and the bones. 1846 R. Ford Gatherings from Spain xxiii. 325 Many a performer, dusky as a Moor, rivals Ethiopian ‘Bones’ himself. 1851 Househ. Words III. 245 Now, the Ethiopians..play old banjoes and bones. 1865 Times 17 July, Amateur negro melodists..thumbed the banjo and rattled the bones. 1884 Sat. Rev. 7 June 740/1 A single row of negro minstrels seated on chairs..while at the end are Bones and Sambo. |
c. pl. ‘A sort of bobbins, made of trotter bones, for weaving bonelace.’ J.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 46 The free maides that weaue their thred with bones. 1691 Ray N.C. Wds 9 Bones, bobbins, because probably made at first of small Bones. Hence Bone-lace. |
d. A strip of whalebone used to stiffen stays, etc.; also
attrib., as in
bone-casing.
| 1595 Gosson Pleas. Quippes in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 256 These privie coates, by art made strong With bones. 1884 Dress Cutting Assoc. Circular ii, All the seams should be opened, the edges neatly over-handed, and bone casings put on. Mod. She had the misfortune to break one of the bones of her stays. |
e. Also in various comb. as
guile bones,
ten-bones,
Napier's bones, etc.,
q.v. † St. Hugh's bones: see
quot.| 1600 Dekker Gentle Craft iv. (1862) 15 Skoomaker, have you all your tools..your hand-and thumb-leathers and good Saint-Hughs bones to smooth up your work. |
f. Golf. (See
quot.)
| 1900 A. E. T. Watson Young Sportsman 315 Bone, the piece of horn, vulcanite, or other material let into the sole of wooden clubs to protect the lower edge of the face. |
6. a. A bone (or part of one) ‘with as much flesh as adheres to it, a fragment of meat’ (J.). Often in comb. as
aitch-,
knuckle-,
marrow-bone, etc.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 319 We stryuen as dide the houndes for the boon. c 1420 Proverb in Rel. Ant. I. 233 Two dogges and one bone Maye never accorde in one. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxvii. 193 ‘I'll gie ye something better than that beef bane, man’. 1837 Disraeli Corr. w. Sister (1886) 76, I..supped..with a large party off oysters, Guiness, and broiled bones. |
b. bones (
fig.): something relished.
| 1884 Tupper Heart vii. 61 ‘Now, that's what I call bones.’ It was a currish image, suggestive of the choicest satisfaction. |
c. a bone to pick or gnaw: something to occupy one as a bone does a dog; a difficulty to solve, a ‘nut to crack’.
to have a bone to pick with one: to have a matter of dispute, or something disagreeable or needing explanation, to settle with a person.
| 1565 Colfhill Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846) 277 A bone for you to pick on. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 30 Some Archplayer..will cast me a bone or ii to pick. 1602 W. Fulbecke Pandectes 69 He..gaue them a bone to gnawe, Date quod est Cæsaris Cæsari, and quod Dei Deo. 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) i. s.v. Pick, To give one a bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicĕre. 1850 H. Rogers Ess. II. ii. (1874) 103 Many a ‘bone’ in these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to ‘pick’ with the author. |
7. bone of contention,
discord, etc.: something that causes contention, discord, etc.; formerly also simply
bone in phrase
to cast a bone between: in allusion to the strife which a bone causes between dogs.
| a 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 47 The diuell hath cast a bone to set stryfe Betweene you. 1576 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 425 This became such a bone of dissention between these deere friends. 1660 Trial Regic. 79 But you cast in Bones here to make some difference. 1692 R. Lestrange Josephus' Antiq. xvi. xi. (1733) 439 By this Means she..cast in a Bone betwixt the Wife and the Husband. 1711 C. M. Lett. to Curat 33 The Liturgie, since it was first Hatched, has been the Bone of Contention in England. 1803 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. I. 517 A great bone of contention between Scindiah & Holkar. |
8. to make bones of or about (
at,
in,
to do obs.): to make objections or scruples about, find difficulty in, have hesitation in or about. So
without more bones. Formerly also
to find bones in, and similar phrases, referring to the occurrence of bones in soup, etc., as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed. Now
usu. with negative.
| 1459 Paston Lett. 331 I. 444 And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere. a 1529 Skelton Elynour Rum. 381 Supped it up at once; She founde therein no bones. 1548 Udall etc. Erasm. Par. Luke i. 28 He made no manier bones ne stickyng, but went in hande to offer up his only son Isaac. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxxiii. 9 As for mans hand, they make no bones at it. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 325 What matter soever is intreated of, they never make bones in it. 1589 Nashe Almond for P. 12 b, A boule of Beere, which..you tooke..and trilled it off without anie more bones. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. (1641) 227/1 Hee..makes no bone To swear by God (for, hee beleeves there's none). 1642 Rogers Naaman 579 Who make no bones of the Lords promises, but devoure them all. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. ii. 40 The Pope makes no bones to break..the Decrees. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis lxiv. (1884) 635 Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting the seat if he offered it to them? 1878 Simpson Sch. Shaks. I. 51 Elizabeth was thus making huge bones of sending some {pstlg}7000 over for the general purposes of the government in Ireland. 1885 W. E. Norris Adrian Vidal III. xxxiv. 117, I didn't quite like to draw out my money so long as Pilkington held on; but I shall make no bones about it with this fellow. 1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Sept. 256/1 On the other hand, Dr. Libby makes no bones about the catastrophe of a nuclear war. |
9. to put a bone in any one's hood: an
obs. humorous expression for To break (or ? cut off) his head;
to have a bone in one's leg,
throat, etc.: as a feigned objection to the use of one's legs, etc.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 337 b, He refused to speake, allegeyng that he had a bone in his throte, & could not speake. 1560 Nice Wanton in Hazl. Dodsl. II. 170 Then, by the rood, A bone in your hood I shall put, ere it be long. a 1738 Swift Pol. Conv. iii. (D.), I can't go, for I have a bone in my leg. |
II. Transferred and
fig. senses.
† 10. The stone of stone-fruit (
transl. L.
os).
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif Baruch vi. 42 Wymmen..sitten in weyes, brennynge boonys of olyues [Vulg. succendentes ossa olivarum]. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 394 Nowe sette in peches boon. |
11. A callous growth in different parts of the legs of horses, becoming as hard as bone; as in
bone-spavin (see 17),
ring-bone, etc.
12. a. The hard framework or ‘skeleton’ of anything,
e.g. of a ship.
| 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 209 The shipwracke of a Dutch Ship cald the Mauritias that laid her bones here. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. 89 Curtains were taken down, mattresses explored, every bone in bed dislocated and washed. 1868 Baker Cast up by Sea iii. 46 Steer straight between the fires..she'll break her bones if she follows. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 106 The bones of the language gradually were weakened. |
b. Usu.
pl. The ‘skeleton’ of a novel, play, or other literary work; basis of literary style;
the bare bones: the mere essentials.
| 1888 Sat. Rev. 15 Dec. 714/2 There are ‘the bones of’ something like a novel of some merit in The Jewel Reputation. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 23 Mar. 7/3 Counsel did not allege that Mr. Tanner had copied plaintiff's dialogue, but the ‘bone’ was the same. 1915 J. Buchan 39 Steps iv. 81 The bare bones of the tale were all that was in the book. 1928 Publishers' Weekly 9 June 2373 My own bed-book is Mrs. Gaskell's ‘Cranford’, and as I read it again that night I could find no bones in it at all. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio xiii. 233 He will need time..to present the bare bones of the argument. |
c. A hardness of the ground due to frost.
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 23 Feb. 5/1 The night's frost had left a great deal of ‘bone’ in the ground. 1927 Observer 18 Dec. 25/2 The ground had been protected by straw, but there seemed to be a good deal of bone in it. |
13. Min. ‘The slaty matter intercalated in coal-seams.’ Raymond
Mining Gloss. 1880.
14. † a. to carry the bone,
i.e. one half of the stake, at the game of
bone-ace.
Obs. [Perhaps a distinct word connected with F.
bon,
bonne, good.]
| 1680 Cotton Compl. Gamester in Singer Hist. Cards (1816) 342 He that hath the biggest card carries the bone, that is one half of the stake. |
b. Naut. to carry a bone in the mouth or teeth: said of a ship, when she makes the water foam before her.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 10 If the Bow be too broad, she will seldome carry a Bone in her mouth or cut a feather, that is, to make a fome before her. 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. v, See how she leaps..and speeds away with a bone in her mouth. |
c. A dollar.
N. Amer. slang.| 1896 Ade Artie ii. 10, I guess I saw as much as two bones change hands. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 Apr. 4/3 Tory and Grit, Tom Uphill too, Declared that they were speaking true, Two thousand bones to each was due, Or else they would be scabbing. |
III. Comb. and
attrib. 15. simple attrib. (or
adj.). Of bone.
| 1488 Inv. Jas. III in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 393 Item a bane coffre, and in it a grete cors of gold. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 419 A bone or ivory folding stick. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. v. 150 These cavemen were very ingenious, and excellent workers in flint..their bone pins, etc. are beautifully polished. |
16. General relations:
a. attrib. (consisting of, pertaining to, made of, or obtained from bones) as
bone-cartilage,
bone-cell,
bone-gelatine,
bone-glue,
bone-knife,
bone-knowledge,
bone-pus,
bone-salt,
bone-snacks,
bone-tissue,
bone-yard.
b. objective with
pr. pple.,
vbl. n., or agent-noun, as
bone-boiling,
bone-breaking,
bone-crushing,
bone-gnawer,
bone-grinding,
bone-piercing,
bone-rotting;
c. similative, as
bone-like,
bone-dry,
bone-white,
adjs.| 1896 Kipling Seven Seas 73 *Bone-bleached my decks. |
| c 1865 Letheby in Circ. Sc. I. 96/2 Refuse grease from glue-making and *bone-boiling. |
| 1808 Bentham Sc. Reform 50 The bone setting and *bone breaking hundred-mile road. |
| 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 856/2 *Bone-cells appear in the ossified intercellular tissue. |
| 1920 R. Graves Country Sentiment 51 Honest men..with glaring eyes, *Bone-chilled. |
| 1951 S. Spender World within World 229 A full moon..exposing walls of *bone-coloured palaces. |
| 1676 W. Row Contn. Blair's Autobiog. x. (1848) 168 The burden of that congregation very ponderous and only not *bone-crushing. |
| a 1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) i. ii. 32 *Bone-dry, adj. perfectly dry; as dry as a bone long bleached in the weather. 1919 ‘Boyd Cable’ Old Contemptibles xvi. 268 They was like a good long drink to a bone-dry man. 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 530/2 At one container exhibition, York light-heartedly moored a standard container at sea for a week. It was found to be bone-dry inside when retrieved. |
| c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 332/2 *Bone-gelatine is obtained by boiling bones in water. |
| 1884 Athenæum 6 Dec. 727/1 The..*bone-gnawer of ‘Kent's Cavern’. |
| 1936 L. B. Lyon Bright Feather Fading 24 One *bone-grey sun-ray between dreamer and dreamer! |
| 1924 A. J. Small Frozen Gold i. 23 The *bone-hard stamp of starvation. 1959 Listener 19 Mar. 516/3 The bone-hard ground. |
| 1839 H. Rogers Essays (1874) II. iii. 143 Nothing would be gained but ridicule if we were to substitute ‘*bone-knowledge’ for ‘osteology’. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 930/2 Covered with the *bone-like substance. |
| 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. iii. 183 A thrice-turn'd, *bone-pick't subject gnaw. |
| a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxxii. (1640) 127 The *bone-rotting vice of envy. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 930 The cells..receiving into their interior the *bone-salts. |
| 1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. xviii. 278 A *bone-structure in the foot which is still more or less adapted to an arboreal life. |
| 1939 D. Cecil Young Melbourne vi. 171 Ghastly pale, *bone-thin..she looked insane. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Two Towers iv. iii. 253 Arms and legs almost bone-white and bone-thin. |
| 1855 Holden Hum. Osteol. (1878) 16 This mixture of earthy granules and animal matter we call ‘*bone-tissue’. |
| 1856 C. Bindley Pract. Horsemanship (ed. 2) Introd. 13 She [a mare] is the ‘milk-white’. Now there is a breed of ‘*bone-whites’, of a bluish tinge, with blackish muzzles. |
| 1883 Century Mag. XXVII. 3 Torture them [horses] in their last hours on the way to the *bone-yard. |
d. Used adverbially, ‘to the bone’; used as an intensive,
usu. with
adjs., as
bone-idle,
bone-lazy (so
bone-laziness),
bone-tired, etc.
| a 1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) I. ii. 32 Bone-lazy, bone-sore, bone-tired, adj. so lazy, sore, or tired, that the laziness, the soreness, or the fatigue, seem to have penetrated the very bones. 1836 Carlyle New Lett. (1904) I. 8 For the last three weeks I have been going what you call bone-idle. 1849 G. E. Jewsbury Let. 29 Mar. in Sel. Lett. to J. W. Carlyle (1892) 287, I am ‘bone lazy’, as my nurse used to phrase it. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed vi. 98 Bone-idle, is he? Careless, and touched in the temper? 1899 C. J. C. Hyne Further Adv. Capt. Kettle vii. 136 This the bone-weary crew were but feebly competent to give. 1912 A. S. M. Hutchinson Happy Warrior i. i. §3 Egbert was bone-tired. 1925 M. Wiltshire Thursday's Child iii. 72 It's nothing in the world but bone-laziness that makes you shy at it. 1939 G. Greene Confid. Agent i. ii. 78 That doesn't mean a thing to me... I'm bone-ignorant. 1942 ‘R. West’ Black Lamb II. 478 Lazy, bone-lazy, they wish to believe that life is lived simply by living. 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai x. 178 The Baas..strode up and down the line of bone-tired scouts. |
17. Special comb.:
bone-ache,
-ague, pain in the bones;
spec. venereal disease;
bone-ash, the mineral residue of bones burnt in contact with air, a white, porous, and friable substance, composed chiefly of phosphate of lime;
† bone-baster (see
quot.);
bone-bed, a geological stratum abounding with bones of animals;
bone-black, the product of the carbonization of bones, extensively used as a decolorizing and deodorizing agent, as a pigment, etc.;
bone-boiler, a workman who performs the operation of boiling or steaming bones used in the manufacture of glue, bone meal, etc.;
bone-breaker, he who or that which breaks bones; a name of the Osprey (L.
ossifraga,
Ger. Beinbrecher); also
attrib.;
bone-breccia, breccia containing many fragments of bones:
bone-brown, a pigment obtained from bones or ivory by roasting till rendered uniformly brown;
bone-cave, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals;
bone-cell,
-corpuscle, an osteoblast;
bone-charcoal = bone-black;
bone china, china-ware made of clay mixed with bone-dust or phosphate of lime;
bone-dog, a kind of Dog-fish;
bone-dust, bones ground for manuring purposes;
bone-earth = bone-ash;
bone-fat, marrow; fatty matter extracted from fresh bones for use in the manufacture of soap, etc.;
bone-fever, ‘phlegmonous inflammation of the hand and arm, often seen in workers in bone’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
bone-flour, a flour obtained by sifting ground bones, used as a fertilizer;
bone-flower,
dial. name of the daisy (J. Hutton
Tour Caves Gloss.);
bone-forceps, a pair of short strong shears for cutting bone during surgical procedures;
bone-grease, or
Sc. bane-grease, ‘the oily substance produced from bones, bruised and stewed on a slow fire’ (Jamieson);
bone-grubber = bone-picker;
bone-head slang (
orig. U.S.), a block-head; also
attrib. or as adj.;
bone-headed a. slang (
orig. U.S.), thick-headed, stupid; hence
bone-headedness;
bone-heap, a heap of bones;
spec. in
Archæol., a refuse pile of bones, etc., of a prehistoric village (
Funk's Standard Dict. 1893); also
fig.;
bone-house, a charnel-house; a coffin; the human body;
bone-manure, a manure prepared from bones;
bone (manure) man (see
quot. 1921);
bone-marrow = marrow n.1 1;
bone-meal (
orig. U.S.), the coarser siftings of ground bones, used as a fertilizer;
bone-mill, a mill for grinding or crushing bones or bone-black;
bone-nippers (
Surgery), ‘cutting forceps, used in the removal of bone’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
bone-oil, a fetid, blackish-brown, thick oil obtained by the dry distillation of bones, and in the preparation of bone-black;
bone phosphate, a commercial name for tricalcium phosphate, the phosphate that forms bone-tissue;
bone-picker, one who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, etc.;
bone-pit U.S. (see
quot.);
bone-polisher (
slang), the cat-o'-nine tails, or the man who wields it;
bone porcelain = bone china;
bone powder, powdered bone, used as a fertilizer;
bone-saw, a surgical saw for cutting bone;
bone-seed (see
quot.);
bone-seeking a. Med., tending to be deposited in the bones following entry into the animal body; hence
bone-seeker;
bone-shaker, a humorous name given to the bicycle as it existed before the introduction of india-rubber tires and other improvements;
bone-shark, the basking-shark;
bone-spavin, a bony excrescence or hard swelling on the inside of a hock of a horse's leg;
bone-spirit, a crude ammoniacal liquor obtained from bone;
bone-throwing vbl. n., the throwing of bones;
spec. that practised by some primitive peoples as a means of divination; hence as
ppl. a.; so
bone-thrower;
bone turquoise (see
turquoise 4);
† bone-work, work done with bone bobbins (applied to bone-lace). Also
bone-fish, -lace, -set, -setter, -shaw, -wort.
| 1398 Trevisa tr. Bartholomeus Anglicus's De Propr. Rerum 63 a (M.E.D.), Þe *boneache is I rotid. 15.. Becon Jewel of Joy in Catechism, etc. (1844) 464 Grieved with bone-ache. c 1520 Skelton Magnyfycence 1907 To cry out of the bone ake. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 20 The vengeance on the whole Camp, or, rather the bone-ach. 1900 Daily News 15 Nov. 6/5 He was attacked with headache, bone-ache, lassitude, [etc.]. |
| 1659 C. Clobery Div. Glimpses 35 (Halliw.) They a *bone-ague get to plague their crimes. |
| 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 284 The Assay-master tooke foure copples or teasts, which are made of *Bone-ashes. 1822 J. Platts Bk. Curiosities lxxiv. 719 The..cupel, which was composed of bone-ash. |
| 1600 Rowlands Let. Humours Blood iv. 64 And lets him see *Bone-baster; thats his staffe. |
| 1841 Lyell Elem. Geol. (ed. 2) II. xxii. 82 There intervenes..a dark-coloured stratum, well known by the name of the ‘*bone-bed’. 1880 Gunther Fishes 194 In the upper Silurian Rocks, in a bone-bed of the Downton sandstone. |
| 1815 Specif. J. Taylor's Patent No. 3929 Bones converted either into ivory or *bone black, animal charcoal, or into white bone ash. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 160 Known as animal charcoal, or bone black. |
| 1843 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VI. 216/2 Any trade or business such as..*bone-boiler. 1906 Daily Chron. 26 May 2/7 Bone boilers and tallow melters. |
| 1598 Florio, Ossifraga, a kind of hauke or eagle called a *bone-breaker. 1721–1800 Bailey, Bone-breaker, a kind of Eagle. |
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 249 In a *bone-breccia of this nature the flint-implements would be relatively more abundant. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 252/3 Artists Tube Oil Colors..Blue Black—*Bone Brown—Brown Pink. |
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 63 Our knowledge of this ancient period is derived principally from..the *Bone-Caves. 1878 A. Ramsay Phys. Geog. xxviii. 459 Bone-caves..always occur in limestone strata. |
| a 1847 Todd's Cycl. Anat. III. 856/1 The *bone-cells..form the outer layer of cells in the Haversian system. |
| 1903 L. M. E. Solon Old Eng. Porcelain 220 Josiah Spode..composed a new china body which..from the nature of its chief constituent..received the vulgar name of ‘*Bone China’. Ibid., This evergreen ‘bone china’ has remained unaltered ever since the first pieces of it came out of Spode's oven. 1965 Finer & Savage in J. Wedgwood's Lett. 179 It abandoned true porcelain for a bone-china body. |
| 1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 854/1 The lacunæ look like solid, black bodies, and..were erroneously called by the earlier observers *bone-corpuscles. |
| 1859 Yarrell Brit. Fishes (ed. 3) II. 519 The Picked Dog-fish..along the south-eastern coast..is almost universally called the *Bone-Dog. |
| 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 397 Effects of *bone-dust and bones. 1848 Gard. Chron. 437 The clergyman had..put a handful of bone-dust under every tree and shrub. |
| 1851 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 246/2 They have a cheap substitute in superphosphate of lime, a soluble form of *bone-earth. 1886 A. H. Church Eng. Porcelain iii. 29 There can be no difficulty in identifying the earth produced by the calcination of certain animal and vegetable matters with bone-earth, that is, calcined bones which consist mainly of phosphate of lime. |
| 1873 Spon Workshop Rec. Ser. i. 373/2 For purifying *bone fat, melt the fat and a small quantity of saltpetre together. 1887 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry VI. 825/1 Loss of Nitrogen in the Manufacture of Bone-fat and the Analysis of Bone-fat. |
| 1888 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry VII. 81/2 The bones..are first broken up more or less finely, and go to produce what are known as—½ inch bones. 1/4 inch bones. Crushed bones. Bonedust. Bonemeal. *Bone flour. |
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 259 One of these presented a bony growth..the end of which was cut off with *bone-forceps. |
| 1862 Mayhew Crim. Prisons 40 A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed *bone-grubber. |
| 1908 C. Dryden in Chicago Daily Trib. 24 Sept. 12/1 Then came the *bone-head finish which left the bugs puzzled and wondering. 1909 R. Beach Silver Horde xx. 271 What's the use?.. That bone-head wouldn't understand! 1915 J. London Let. 5 Nov. (1966) 463 Now, why be serious with this bone-head world? 1917 Conan Doyle His Last Bow viii. 292 James was a bonehead—I give you that. 1958 J. & W. Hawkins Death Watch (1959) iii. 82 The best of us have made a bonehead mistake or two. |
| 1903 Smart Set IX. 96 You talk like a *bone-headed fool! 1915 Wodehouse Something Fresh v. 149 You blanked bone-headed boob! 1923 ― Adv. Sally xiii. 212 The wilful bone-headedness of our fellows. |
| 1940 ‘G. Orwell’ Inside Whale 142 The ancient *boneheap of Europe, where every grain of soil has passed through innumerable human bodies. |
| 1799 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 3/2 The *bone-house in the Church yard. 1846 J. R. Walbran Guide Ripon, The celebrated ‘Bone-house’ no longer exists. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Sol. vi. 119 This wonderful bone-house which is called man. |
| 1899 Daily News 21 July 5/2 Defendant gave instructions for the *bone man to take away the bad meat. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §149 Bone manure man, general term for any unskilled worker, other than a maintenance man, employed in a bone manure factory. |
| 1908 W. E. C. Dickson (title) The *Bone-Marrow. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. ix. 189 An extra production of red blood-corpuscles by the bone-marrow. |
| 1850 New Engl. Farmer II. 44 On Mr. Preston's farm..they began to use *bone-meal. 1933 Jrnl. R. Hort. Soc. LVIII. 119 Prepared soil..may consist of equal parts of loam and leaf-soil to which has been added some bone-meal. |
| 1849 Craig, *Bone-phosphate. 1871 Roscoe Elem. Chem. 219 Calcium phosphate, or bone phosphate. |
| 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour Extra vol. (1862) 314/2 The people who usually lodge here are crossing-sweepers, *bonepickers, and shoeblacks. |
| 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms i. 25 In the State of New York and in Canada there are..many places..where the Indians buried their dead, and these are known as *bonepits. |
| a 1848 Marryat R. Reefer lvii, Master at arms, brush up the *bone-polishers. 1857 Old Commodore II. 192 He became body servant and bone-polisher to No. 2. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Bone Porcelain, a ware into the composition of which enters phosphate of lime in the form of bone dust. |
| 1888 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry VII. 133/1 The *bone-powders of commerce are not always products of manufacture solely derived from the grinding of bones. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Bone Saw. 1908 Hardy Dynasts iii. vii. v, A surgeon's horse..laden with bone-saws,..and other surgical instruments. |
| 1866 Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot., *Bone-seed, the common name for Osteospermum. |
| 1948 M. Heller in W. Bloom Histopathol. of Irrad. 101 In young rats treated with strontium 89 (and probably also other ‘*bone seekers’) an initial cessation of growth was followed by a period of growth resumption. 1955 Sci. Amer. Aug. 37/1 Most fission products are known as ‘bone-seekers’: they tend to concentrate in the skeleton. |
| 1947 Radiology XLIX. 347/1 In the case of rats, the effect of the *bone-seeking isotopes is a bit different. |
| 1874 A. Howard Bicycle 10 In 1870 and 1871 the low, long ‘*bone-shaker’ began to fall in public esteem. 1883 C. Spenser in Echo 1 Sept. 1/6 The bicycle of the present day differs [greatly] from the ‘bone-shaker’ I introduced into England in 1868. |
| 1802 in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. VIII. 199 There is a large shark in the harbour, named the *bone-shark, and similar in shape to the man-eating shark, but harmless. 1917 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 590/1 The tiger shark of the Indian Ocean and the ‘bone shark’. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 316 The dry spaven..is a great hard knob..in the inside of the hough..called of some the *bone-spaven. |
| 1953 P. Abrahams Return to Goli v. 180 In desperation she went to a ‘*bone-thrower’. |
| 1927 E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse 185 The Danish practice of *bone-throwing is heard of in actual history. 1931 J. Mockford Khama xxxiii. 236 First he had found it necessary to fight with his bone-throwing father. |
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 1099/2 A faire hat of veluet, with a broad *bone-worke lace about it. |
▪ II. bone, a. Thieves' cant.
[app. f. F. bon good; or a retention of ME. bon, boon: see boon.] Good.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 364 A mark..placed on the door post of such as are bone or gammy in order to inform the rest of the school where to call. |
▪ III. bone, v.1 (
bəʊn)
[f. bone n.] † 1. intr. ? To throw out spicules of bone.
Obs.| 1664 in Pepys Diary (1879) III. 96 [Charm against a thorn] Jesus..Was pricked both with nail and thorn; It neither wealed, nor belled, rankled nor boned. |
2. trans. To deprive of the bone; to take out the bones,
e.g. from meat, fish, etc.; also
fig.| 1494 Act 11 Hen. VII, xxiii, Fish..not boned or splatted. 1552 Huloet, Bonen, or plucke oute bones, exosso. 1674 tr. Scheffer's Lapland xviii. 92 Having boiled the fish they first bone them. 1853 A. Soyer Pantroph. 139 Cook a ham..then bone it. 1880 Ruskin Deucalion No. 7 You give it [a book] to a reviewer, first to skin it, and then to bone it, and then to chew it, and then to lick it, and then to give it you down your throat like a handful of pilau. |
3. To furnish with bones, as
a. to manure with bones;
b. to stiffen (stays) with whalebone.
| 1871 Figure-Training 49 Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps. 1873 R. Caldecott in Pall Mall G. 11 June (1886) 4/1 A fine grass field..well boned last winter. |
4. intr. To study hard; to apply oneself diligently or determinedly. Freq. with
down,
in, and
esp. up (
on).
slang (
orig. and chiefly
U.S.).
| 1841 Greeley in W. M. Griswold Corr. R. W. Griswold (1898) 53 Webb..has been round boring every big-bug in the State to bone for him. a 1861 T. Winthrop Life in open Air etc. (1863) 148 We was about sick of putty-heads and sneaks that..didn't dare to make us stand round and bone in. 1883 H. A. Beers in Century Mag. June 273/2 I'm going to bone right down to it. 1887 E. Custer Tenting on Plains (1889) ix. 286, I have known the General to ‘bone-up’, as his West Point phrase expressed it, on the smallest details of some question at issue. 1959 Punch 14 Oct. 309/1 The Wrens..boned up on Russian to be ahead for the next war. 1968 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 29 Nov. 67/4 Mr Robert Powell,..who is on the set as technical adviser but who wastes no opportunity to bone up on his hobby—Romanesque architecture. |
5. trans. To point a bone at (someone) as part of a spell or curse;
cf. bone n. 1 e.
| 1904 Daily Chron. 16 July 3/3 They will be ‘boned’ by men of the moiety of the tribe. 1934 A. Russell Tramp-Royal x. 80 One of their number ‘boned’ him; that is, pointed the magic bone at him. Eight weeks later he was dead. 1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger 384 The whole world is paralysed by the mumbo-jumbo of banking jargon, like a binghi ‘boned’ by a medicine man. |
▪ IV. bone, v.2 slang. (
bəʊn)
[Origin unknown: it has been conjectured to be a sense of prec., ‘to seize as a dog does a bone’; also referred to bone a.] trans. To take into custody, apprehend; to lay hold of; to seize and take possession of, steal.
| 1819 J. H. Vaux Mem. II. 157 Tell us how you was boned, signifies, tell us the story of your apprehension. 1846 Comic Jack Giant Killer ii. i. (ed. 3) 6 For not the slighest ‘bones’ made he Of ‘boning’ people's ‘grub’. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah II. 22, I wounded a tusker..but the Karens..found it dead and boned the tusks. |
▪ V. bone, v.3 See
boning vbl. n.2▪ VI. bone obs. form of
bane,
boon,
boun.