bone
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General American) enPR: bōn, IPA(key): /ˈboʊn/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bəʊn/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /bəʉn/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /bɐʉn/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊn
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”).
Cognate with Scots bane, been, bean, bein, bain (“bone”), North Frisian bien (“bone”), 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 and Icelandic bein (“bone”), 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 condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cosy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen”)), Icelandic beinn (“straight, direct, hospitable”), Norwegian bein (“straight, direct, easy to deal with”). See bain, bein.
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]

bone (countable and uncountable, plural bones)
- (uncountable) A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
- a1420, The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056, “Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone”, in Robert von Fleischhacker, editor, Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie."[1], London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, translation of original by Lanfranc of Milan, published 1894, →ISBN, page 63:
- 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 brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra.
- (countable) Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 275, column 1:
- No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones.
- A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
- A bonefish.
- 2019: "Tres Bocas" by Scott Sadil, California Fly Fisher
- 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: "Tres Bocas" by Scott Sadil, California Fly Fisher
- One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
- One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
- Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
- (figurative) The framework of anything.
- An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
- bone:
- (US, informal) A dollar.
- (American football, informal) The wishbone formation.
- (slang) An erect penis; a boner.
- (slang, chiefly in the plural) A domino or dice.
- 1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:
- The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones.
- (slang) A cannabis cigarette; a joint.
- 2006, Sean Conway, Gillis Huckabee, page 140:
- In between sets I took her outside, sat against a fence near the dumpster, and smoked a bone with her.
- (figurative) A reward.
- 1979, Pink Floyd, Nobody Home:
- When I'm a good dog they sometimes throw me a bone in
Synonyms[edit]
- os (rare)
- (rigid parts of a corset): rib, stay
- (reward): doggy treat
Hypernyms[edit]
Hyponyms[edit]
- aitchbone
- aitch-bone
- alveolar bone
- arm bone
- armbone
- auditory bone
- back-bone
- backbone
- barebone
- bone age
- bone apple tea
- bone-ash
- bone black
- bone dry
- bone-fire
- bone folder
- bone graft
- bone-hard
- bone head
- bone idle
- bone-in
- bone in one's body
- bone-meal
- bone-mouth
- bone oil
- bone-on
- bone-seeker
- bone seeker
- bone-shaker
- bone spur
- bone-tired
- bone tired
- breastbone
- breast bone
- calf bone
- cannon bone
- canon bone
- capitate bone
- carpal bone
- cheekbone
- cheek bone
- cheek-bone
- chevron bone
- chill to the bone
- coffin bone
- collar bone
- collar-bone
- collarbone
- cramp bone
- crazy bone
- cuboidal bone
- cuboid bone
- cuneiform bone
- cuttlebone
- cuttlefish bone
- dentary bone
- dermal bone
- dog bone
- dragonbone
- dry bone
- earbone
- elbow bone
- epipubic bone
- ethmoid bone
- exercise bone
- falling off the bone
- featherbone
- fingerbone
- fishbone
- flesh and bone
- folding bone
- folding-bone
- footbone
- forearm bone
- frontal bone
- funny bone
- glass bone disease
- hamate bone
- haunch bone
- H bone
- heel bone
- herringbone
- herring-bone
- hip bone
- huckle bone
- hyoid bone
- incisive bone
- innominate bone
- intermediate cuneiform bone
- Ishango bone
- jawbone
- jaw bone
- jaw-bone
- knucklebone
- lachrymal bone
- lacrimal bone
- lateral cuneiform bone
- legbone
- like a bulldog with a bone
- lingual bone
- long bone
- lunate bone
- malar bone
- marrowbone
- marsupial bone
- mastoid bone
- medial cuneiform bone
- membrane bone
- membrane-bone
- metacarpal bone
- Murphy-Lane bone skid
- nasal bone
- navicular bone
- neckbone
- occipital bone
- oracle bone
- otic bone
- palatine bone
- parietal bone
- pedal bone
- penile bone
- penis bone
- pin bone
- pisiform bone
- pizza bone
- plate bone
- pneumatic bone
- point the bone
- pull bone
- pulley bone
- quadrate bone
- radial bone
- rag-and-bone man
- rag-and-bone shop
- rider's bone
- ridge-bone
- ridgebone
- romancing the bone
- roofing bone
- rostral bone
- ruel-bone
- scaphoid bone
- semilunar bone
- sesamoid bone
- shinbone
- shoulder bone
- sit bone
- skullbone
- soup bone
- speal-bone
- sphenoid bone
- splenial bone
- splint bone
- splinter bone
- spoke-bone
- stirrup bone
- tailbone
- tail bone
- tarsal bone
- tau bone
- t-bone
- T-bone
- temporal bone
- throw someone a bone
- Tilly bone
- tongue bone
- to one's bone
- toss a bone to
- toss them a bone
- trapezium bone
- trapezoid bone
- triquetral bone
- triquetrum bone
- turbinate bone
- twitter-bone
- tympanic bone
- vomer bone
- what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
- wishbone
- wishing bone
- Wormian bone
- wristbone
- yellow bone
- zygomatic bone
Derived terms[edit]
- all skin and bones
- bad to the bone
- bag of bones
- bare-bones
- bone ash
- bonebed
- boneblack
- bone-chilling
- bone china
- bone-cruncher
- bone-crunching
- boned
- bone-deep
- bone density
- bonedigger
- bone-dry
- bone earth
- bone-eating snot flower worm
- bone fire
- bonefish
- bone folder
- bone-grubber
- bone hard
- bonehead
- boneheaded
- boneheadedly
- boneheadedness
- bone-house wasp
- bone-idle
- bone in her teeth
- bone in the throat
- bone lace
- boneless
- bonelessness
- bonelet
- bone loss
- bone marrow
- bone mass
- bone meal
- bone morphogenetic protein
- bone of contention
- boner
- bone scan
- boneseeker
- bonesetter
- boneshaker
- bone-shaking
- bone-shakingly
- Bonesman
- bone spavin
- bone structure
- bone tissue
- bone to pick
- bone turquoise
- bone up
- bone wax
- boneyard
- bony
- break-bones
- bred-in-the-bone
- breed in the bone
- brittle bone disease
- chew the meat and spit out the bones
- close to the bone
- crossbones
- dog and bone
- dog bone spanner
- dog bone wrench
- dry as a bone
- flesh and bones
- God's bones
- have a bone in one's leg
- have a bone to pick
- in one's bones
- jump one's bones
- keep one's bone green
- lazy bones
- like a dog with a bone
- lucky-bone
- make no bones about
- make old bones
- make one's bones
- meat on the bones
- Napier's bones
- near the bone
- no bones about it
- oracle bone script
- phantom bone disease
- rag and bone man
- rag and bone shop
- rattle the bones
- rickle of bones
- ring-bone
- sawbones
- skin and bone
- skin and bones
- skull and bones
- soaked to the bone
- soaked to the bones
- St. Hugh's bones
- sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
- T-bone steak
- throw a bone to
- tickle someone's funny bone
- to one's bones
- to the bone
- to the bones
- whirl-bone
- with every bone in one's body
- work one's fingers to the bone
Translations[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone (not comparable)
- Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
Verb[edit]
bone (third-person singular simple present bones, present participle boning, simple past and past participle boned)
- To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
- 1949, Kenneth Lewis Roberts, I Wanted to Write[2], page 44:
- 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.
- 1977, Prosper Montagné, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon, The New Larousse Gastronomique[3], page 73:
- 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.
- 2009, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food[4], page 379:
- Then it is boned; keeping the bone in during cooking improves the flavour and enriches the meat with calcium.
- 2011, Aliza Green, Steve Legato, The Fishmonger's Apprentice[5], page 38:
- Other fish suited to boning through the back include small bluefish, Arctic char, steelhead salmon, salmon, small wild striped bass, hybrid striped bass, Whitefish, drum, trout, and sea trout.
- To fertilize with bone.
- 1859 July 9, The Economist[6], page 758:
- He cites an instance of land heavily boned 70 years ago as “still markedly luxuriant beyond any other grass land in the same district.”
- To put whalebone into.
- 1871, Figure-Training:
- Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps.
- (civil engineering) To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
- (vulgar, slang, usually of a man, transitive, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse (with).
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate, Thesaurus:copulate with
- Related terms: boned, boner
- 1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J:
- We're bonin' on the dark blocks / Wearin' out the shocks, wettin' up the dashboard clock
- 1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy:
- Stash in the buildin wit this chick named Alona / From Daytona, when I was young I wants to bone her
- 2006, Masta Ace (lyrics), “Sick of it all”, in Pariah:
- […] These cats stay rapping about cars they don't own / I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don't bone
- 2007, Stacey Deddo, The Elimination Special, Part II: The Elimination (Drawn Together), season 3, episode 14, Comedy Central, spoken by The Jew Producer (James Arnold Taylor):
- When we return we'll find out which one of our six remaining contestants' dreams will be totally ruined, like your mom's reputation after I bone her face.
- 2007, Reno Mounties (Reno 911!), season 4, episode 11, Comedy Central, spoken by Deputy Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong):
- I swear on the good book that if you pull through, I will bone Travis Junior.
- (Australia, dated, in Aboriginal culture) To perform "bone pointing", a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.
- 1962, Arthur Upfield, The Will of the Tribe, Collier Books, page 48:
- "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".
- (usually with "up") To study.
- 1896, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Chums:
- "I know it. You do not study." "What's the use of boning all the time! I wasn't cut out for it."
- To polish boots to a shiny finish.
- c. 1980,, F. van Zy, SADF National Service (1979-1980)[7], archived from the original on 22 June 2004:
- […] the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits […]
- To nag, especially for an unpaid debt.
- 1950, Asphalt Jungle:
- 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!
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
Unknown; probably related in some way to Etymology 1, above.
Verb[edit]
bone (third-person singular simple present bones, present participle boning, simple past and past participle boned)
- (transitive, slang) To apprehend, steal.
- 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby[8], page 127:
- “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 had boned, and who you had boned it from.”
- 1915, William Roscoe Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay:
- […] 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 possession or custody any of the papers which you entrusted to him.
- 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Root of the Boot”, in Songs for the Philologists:
- But troll's old seat is much the same,
And the bone he boned from its owner
- 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 802:
- Therefore she wants to take results that belong to other people: she wants to bone everybody else's loaf.
Etymology 3[edit]
Borrowed from French bornoyer to look at with one eye, to sight, from borgne one-eyed.
Verb[edit]
bone (third-person singular simple present bones, present participle boning, simple past and past participle boned)
- (carpentry, masonry, surveying) To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line[1].
- 1846, W. M. Buchanan, A Technological Dictionary[9], page 151:
- Joiners, &c., bone their work with two straight edges.
Etymology 4[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone (plural bones)
References[edit]
- ^ 1874, Edward H. Knight, American Mechanical Dictionary
Anagrams[edit]
Afrikaans[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone
Danish[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Low German and Middle Low German bōnen, from Old Saxon *bōnian, from Proto-West Germanic *bōnijan (“to polish”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
bone (imperative bon, infinitive at bone, present tense boner, past tense bonede, perfect tense har bonet)
- to polish
Etymology 2[edit]
Derived from the noun bon (“receipt”), from French bon (“voucher, ticket”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
bone (imperative bon, infinitive at bone, present tense boner, past tense bonede, perfect tense har bonet)
Esperanto[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adverb[edit]
bone
Hadza[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Sukuma βũne (“four (class XIV)”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone m (masc. plural bunibii, fem. boneko, fem. plural bonebee)
Ido[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Esperanto bone (“well”), bona (“good”) + -e.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adverb[edit]
bone
- well
- 2008, Margrit Kennedy, Pekunio sen interesti ed inflaciono, tr. by Alfred Neussner of Interest and Inflation Free Money, page 50:
- To pruvas maxim bone nia bonstando, se ica sumo distributesus nur proxime pro-porcionale.
- This would have served well as a proof of our prosperity if it were evenly distributed. (Original English, page 29)
- To pruvas maxim bone nia bonstando, se ica sumo distributesus nur proxime pro-porcionale.
- 2008, Margrit Kennedy, Pekunio sen interesti ed inflaciono, tr. by Alfred Neussner of Interest and Inflation Free Money, page 50:
Related terms[edit]
Italian[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
Latin[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
References[edit]
- “bone”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- bone in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- “bone”, in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
Lindu[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone
Middle Dutch[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu.
Noun[edit]
bône f
Inflection[edit]
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants[edit]
- Dutch: boon
- Afrikaans: boon
- → Xhosa: imbotyi (from the diminutive)
- Berbice Creole Dutch: bono
- Negerhollands: bontśi, boontje, boonschi (from the diminutive)
- → Virgin Islands Creole: bontsi (archaic)
- → Caribbean Javanese: bontyis (from the diminutive plural)
- → Indonesian: buncis (from the diminutive plural)
- → Javanese: buncis (from the diminutive plural)
- → Papiamentu: bonchi, boontsje (from the diminutive)
- → Sranan Tongo: bonki (from the diminutive)
- → Caribbean Hindustani: bongki
- Afrikaans: boon
- Limburgish: boean
Further reading[edit]
- “bone”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “bone”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone
- Alternative form of bane
Etymology 2[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone (plural bones)
- Alternative form of bon
Etymology 3[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone
- Alternative form of boon
Etymology 4[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
- Alternative form of boon
Etymology 5[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
- Alternative form of boun
Northern Sami[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
bone
- inflection of botnit:
Old French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
Turkish[edit]

Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
bone (definite accusative boneyi, plural boneler)
- (kıyafetler) bathing cap, swim cap, swimming cap.
- Yüzücünün yarışta taktığı bone çıktı.
- The swimming cap that the swimmer wore during the race came off.
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Declension[edit]
Inflection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | bone | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | boneyi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominative | bone | boneler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | boneyi | boneleri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dative | boneye | bonelere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locative | bonede | bonelerde | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ablative | boneden | bonelerden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genitive | bonenin | bonelerin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Further reading[edit]
bone on the Turkish Wikipedia.Wikipedia tr
Venetian[edit]
Adjective[edit]
bone
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/əʊn
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