There was considerable uneasiness in the bosoms of others of the Directors. . . . [T]hey knew that Lord Alfred had sold shares, and had received the profit. . . . And if there was so much cause to fear Lord Alfred that it was necessary to throw him a bone, why should not they also make themselves feared?
1944 Jan. 14, "ILWU Votes for FR Plan," Berkeley Daily Gazette (USA), p. 1 (retrieved 11 July 2011):
The union . . . "regretted that the President thought it necessary to throw a bone to the anti-labor bloc" by saying the act would prevent strikes.
And he did it on the day the Senate threw a bone to President Bush's evangelical base by voting on a Constitutional amendment declaring that only a union of a man and a woman constitutes marriage.
Etymology
An allusion to the act of throwing a bone as food to a hungry dog.