▪ I. boning, vbl. n.1
(ˈbəʊnɪŋ)
[f. bone v. + -ing1.]
1. The removing of bones from meat, fish, etc.
| 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, xxiii, For bonyng napyng and packing of a barell fisshe, jd. 1884 Girl's Own Paper June 491/3 Boning meat and poultry. |
2. The applying of bones to land as manure.
| 1875 Agric. Holdings Act xcii. §5 An improvement comprised in following..Boning of land with undissolved bones. |
▪ II. boning, vbl. n.2 Surveying, Building, etc.
(ˈbəʊnɪŋ)
The process of levelling or of judging of the straightness of a surface or line by the eye, as by looking along the tops of two straight edges or along a line of poles placed some distance apart; also attrib., as in boning rod, boning stick, boning telescope.
| 1785 Roy Survey. in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 411 Twenty-four boning rods had been originally provided. 1795 Trigon. Surv. ibid. LXXXV. 477 Using the transit as a boning telescope. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 581 Joiners try up their work by boning with two straight-edges, which determine whether..the surface be twisted or a plane. 1877 Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Boning-stick, a simple instrument used for setting out the depth of drains or other cuttings in the soil. 1886 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 326/1 Spirit level, boning rod and telescope. |