bone

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See also: boné and bones

English[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from Proto-Germanic *bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhey- (“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”), Icelandic bein (“bone”), Breton benañ (“to cut, hew”), Latin perfinēs (“break through, break into pieces, shatter”), Avestan byente (“they fight, hit”). Related also to Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”) (from 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]

An animal bone

bone (countable and uncountable, plural bones)

  1. (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, ISBN 1163911380, published 1894, 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.
  2. (countable) Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.
  3. A bone of a fish; a fishbone
  4. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
  5. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
    bone colour:    
  6. (US, informal) A dollar.
  7. (slang) An erect penis; a boner.
  8. (slang) Dominoes or dice.
  9. (slang) shortened form of trombone
Synonyms[edit]
  • (rigid parts of a corset): rib, stay
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective[edit]

bone (not comparable)

  1. 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)

  1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
    • 1949, Kenneth Lewis Roberts, I Wanted to Write, 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, 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, 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, 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.
  2. To fertilize with bone.
    • 1859 July 9, The Economist, 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.”
  3. To put whalebone into.
    to bone stays
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ash to this entry?)
  4. (civil engineering) To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
    boning rod
  5. (vulgar, slang, of a man) To have sexual intercourse with.
    So, did you bone her?
  6. (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".
  7. (usually with "up") To study.
    bone up
    • 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."
  8. To polish boots to a shiny finish.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from bone (adjective, noun, or verb)

See also[edit]

See also

External links[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Origin 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)

  1. (transitive, slang) To apprehend, steal.
    • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, in Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, Volume XXXVII, 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.
    • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, 2006, Canongate, p.802,
      Therefore she wants to take results that belong to other people: she wants to bone everybody else's loaf.

Etymology 3[edit]

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)

  1. (carpentry, masonry, surveying) To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
    • W. M. Buchanan
      Joiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges.

Anagrams[edit]

Esperanto[edit]

Etymology[edit]

bona (“good”) +‎ -e

Adverb[edit]

bone

  1. well, OK

Ido[edit]

FWOTD - 30 October 2013

Etymology[edit]

From Esperanto bone (“well”), bona (“good”) +‎ -e.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adverb[edit]

bone

  1. well
    • 2008, Pekunio sen interesti ed inflaciono, Margrit Kennedy, p. 50:
      To pruvas maxim bone nia bonstando, se ica sumo distributesus nur proxime pro-porcionale.
      This best proves our good situation, if this sum is only distributed approximately proportionally.

Related terms[edit]

Italian[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bone f

  1. feminine plural of bono

Latin[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bone

  1. vocative masculine singular of bonus

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

bone (plural bones)

  1. bone

Old French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bone

  1. nominative feminine singular of bon
  2. oblique feminine singular of bon

Venetian[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bone f

  1. feminine plural of bon
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