make one's bones

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

make one's bones (third-person singular simple present makes one's bones, present participle making one's bones, simple past and past participle made one's bones)

1. To commit a murder in order to be respected in a criminal gang.
   • 1976, Gloria Vitanza Basile, The Godson, page 232:

     Mario Cacciatore was fourteen when he made his bones.

2. (by extension) To establish one's bona fides; to establish status and respect.
   • 2018 January 18, Eric Bradner, Chris Cillizza, “Republicans are running in 2018. Running from Trump”, in CNN.com, retrieved 4 September 2018:

     Politicians—good ones, at least—make their bones by knowing which way the wind is blowing.

   • 2023 October 11, Jonathan Jones, “Frieze London art fair review – a graveyard of creativity for tasteless one percenters”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Wearing, Brown and Hume all made their bones in an era when contemporary art fought for attention and had to insist it mattered – when in Britain, at least, it seemed cutting edge to like it at all.

Translations

to establish respect

• Finnish: niittää kunnioitusta
• French: se faire une réputation, se forger une réputation
• Polish: udowadniać status impf, udowodnić status pf

See also

• cut one's teeth