bone

A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.

Adjective

  1. Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

Origin

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”). Cognate with Scots bane, been, bean, bein, bain (“bone”), North Frisian bian, Biin, biinj (“bone; leg”), West Frisian bien (“bone”), Dutch been (“bone; leg”), German Low German Been, Bein (“bone”), German Bein (“leg”), German Gebein (“bones”), Swedish ben (“bone; leg”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Icelandic bein (“bone; leg”), Breton benañ (“to cut, hew”), Latin perfinēs (“break through, break into pieces, shatter”), Avestan 𐬠𐬫𐬈𐬥𐬙𐬈 (byente, “they fight, hit”). Related also to Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”) (whence Middle English bain, bayne, bayn, beyn (“direct, prompt”), Scots bein, bien (“in good...

Forms

bane byen

Adverb

  1. Used before an adjective as an intensifier
    • GWF, well almost anyway, 40, bone-lonely, desperately needs a friend in Southern Maine. - 1979 December 22, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 18:

Forms

bane byen

Noun Entry 3

  1. A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
    • Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne...
  2. Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of this material.
    • No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones. - c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  3. A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
  4. A bonefish.
    • The reason I rarely fish for Mag Bay bones with a 5-weight or 6-weight is the number of fish that can turn light stuff inside out. - 2019, Scott Sadil, “Tres Bocas”, in California Fly Fisher:
  5. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
  6. One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
  7. Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
  8. The framework of anything.
  9. An off-white colour, like the typical colour of bone.
  10. A dollar.
  11. The wishbone formation.
  12. An erect penis; a boner.
    • Speakin' on the phone, for hours on end / On the bone from just listenin', and then: - 2003, “Let Me Watch”, in Vaudeville Villain, performed by Viktor Vaughn ft. Apani B. Fly:

Forms

bones bane byen

Synonyms

os rib stay doggy treat

Hypernyms

skeleton

Hyponyms

aitchbone alveolar bone armbone auditory bone backbone barebone breastbone calf bone cannon bone capitate bone carpal bone cheekbone chevron bone coffin bone collarbone cramp bone crazy bone cuboid bone cuneiform bone cuttlebone cuttlefish bone dentary bone dermal bone dog bone

Derived

aitch-bone all skin and bones anklebone arm bone back-bone bad to the bone bag of bones bare-bones bladebone boneache bone age bone apple tea bone-ash bone ash bonebed bone black boneblack bone box bone-cage bone cancer bone char bone-chilling bone china bone collector

Noun abbreviation, alt of

  1. Clipping of trombone.

Origin

Clipping of trombone.

Forms

bones

Verb Entry 5

  1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
    • One of the fish stalls specialized in boning shad, and he who has never eaten a boned shad baked twenty minutes on a hot oak plank has been deprived of the most delicious morsel that the ocean yields. - 1949, Kenneth...
    • The ballottine is made of a piece of meat, fowl, game or fish which is boned, stuffed, and rolled into the shape of a bundle. The term ballottine should strictly apply only to meat, boned and rolled, but not stuffed. -...
    • Then it is boned; keeping the bone in during cooking improves the flavour and enriches the meat with calcium. - 2009, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, page 379:

    Synonyms: debone unbone

    Coordinate Terms: gut skin

  2. To fertilize with bone.
    • He cites an instance of land heavily boned 70 years ago as “still markedly luxuriant beyond any other grass land in the same district.” - 1859 July 9, The Economist, page 758:
  3. To put whalebone into.
    • Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps. - 1871, Figure-Training:
  4. To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
    • boning rod
  5. To have sexual intercourse (with).
    • O Memmius, well and slowly did you bone me, supine, day by day, with the whole of that beam. - 1894, Catullus, translated by Leonard C. Smithers, The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus, section 58:
    • We’re bonin’ on the dark blocks / Wearin’ out the shocks, wettin’ up the dashboard clock - 1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J:
    • Stash in the buildin wit this chick named Alona / From Daytona, when I was young I wants to bone her - 1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy:

    Synonyms: approach cohabit common company copulate couple engage in sex exchange flesh have intimate relations have marital relations have sex have sexual relations intercourse know know someone in the biblical sense make love mate share a bed sleep together strain bang bauf beat bone

  6. To perform “bone pointing”, a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.
    • “You don’t know!”, Bony echoed. “You can tell me who boned me fifteen years ago on the other side of the world, and you can’t tell me who killed the white-fella in the Crater”. - 1962, Arthur Upfield, The Will of the...
  7. To study.
    • bone up
    • “I know it. You do not study.” “What’s the use of boning all the time! I wasn’t cut out for it.” - 1896, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Chums:
  8. To polish boots to a shiny finish.
    • […] the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits […] - c. 1980, F. van Zy, SADF National Service (1979-1980), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2004:
  9. To nag, especially for an unpaid debt.
    • Dix Handley: Don’t bone me! Cobby: Now look, I’m not boning you, Dix— Dix: Did I ever welsh? Cobby: Nobody said you did— Dix: You just boned me! - 1950, Asphalt Jungle:

Forms

bones boning boned bane byen

Derived

bonable bone down bone out boning boning rod debone unbone

Verb slang, transitive

  1. To apprehend, steal.
    • “Did I?” said Squeers, “Well it was rather a startling thing for a stranger to come and recommend himself by saying that he knew all about you, and what your name was, and why you were living so quiet here, and what you...
    • […]as long as you and I live I take it for granted that you will not suspect me of boning them. But to guard against casualties hereafter, I have asked Nicolay to write you a line saying that I have never had in my...
    • But troll's old seat is much the same, And the bone he boned from its owner - 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Root of the Boot”, in Songs for the Philologists:

Origin

Unknown; probably related in some way to Etymology 1, above.

Forms

bones boning boned

Verb business, carpentry

  1. To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.
    • Joiners, &c., bone their work with two straight edges. - 1846, W. M. Buchanan, A Technological Dictionary, page 151:

Origin

Borrowed from French bornoyer (“to look at with one eye, to sight”), from borgne (“one-eyed”).

Forms

bones boning boned