Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Bone
Bone
(bōn; 110)
, Noun.
[OE.
bon
, ban
, AS. bān
; akin to Icel. bein
, Sw. ben
, Dan. & D. been
, G. bein
bone, leg; cf. Icel. beinn
straight.] 1.
(Anat.)
The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and gelatine;
as, blood and
. bone
☞ Even in the hardest parts of bone there are many minute cavities containing living matter and connected by minute canals, some of which connect with larger canals through which blood vessels ramify.
2.
One of the pieces or parts of an animal skeleton;
as, a rib or a thigh
; also, any fragment of bony substance. (bone
; a bone
of the arm or legpl.
) The frame or skeleton of the body. 3.
Anything made of bone, as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
4.
pl.
Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music.
5.
pl.
Dice.
6.
Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset.
7.
Fig.: The framework of anything.
A bone of contention
, a subject of contention or dispute.
– A bone to pick
, something to investigate, or to busy one’s self about; a dispute to be settled (with some one).
– Bone ash
, the residue from calcined bones; – used for making cupels, and for cleaning jewelry.
– Bone black
(Chem.)
, the black, carbonaceous substance into which bones are converted by calcination in close vessels; – called also
– animal charcoal
. It is used as a decolorizing material in filtering sirups, extracts, etc., and as a black pigment. See Ivory black
, under Black
. Bone cave
, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals, mingled sometimes with the works and bones of man.
Am. Cyc.
– Bone dust
, ground or pulverized bones, used as a fertilizer.
– Bone earth
(Chem.)
, the earthy residuum after the calcination of bone, consisting chiefly of phosphate of calcium.
– Bone lace
, a lace made of linen thread, so called because woven with bobbins of bone.
– Bone oil
, an oil obtained by heating bones (as in the manufacture of bone black), and remarkable for containing the nitrogenous bases, pyridine and quinoline, and their derivatives; – also called
– Dippel's oil
. Bone setter
. Same as
– Bonesetter
. See in the Vocabulary. Bone shark
(Zool.)
, the basking shark.
– Bone spavin
. See under
– Spavin
. Bone turquoise
, fossil bone or tooth of a delicate blue color, sometimes used as an imitation of true turquoise.
– Bone whale
(Zool.)
, a right whale.
– To be upon the bones of
, to attack.
[Obs.]
– To make no bones
, to make no scruple; not to hesitate.
[Low]
– To pick a bone with
, to quarrel with, as dogs quarrel over a bone; to settle a disagreement.
[Colloq.]
Bone
(bōn)
, Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Boned
(bōnd)
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Boning
.] 1.
To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery.
“To bone a turkey.” Soyer.
2.
To put whalebone into;
as, to
. bone
staysAsh.
3.
To fertilize with bone.
4.
To steal; to take possession of.
[Slang]
Bone
,Verb.
T.
[F.
bornoyer
to look at with one eye, to sight, fr. borgne
one-eyed.] To sight along an object or set of objects, to see if it or they be level or in line, as in carpentry, masonry, and surveying.
Knight.
Joiners, etc.,
bone
their work with two straight edges. W. M. Buchanan.
Webster 1828 Edition
Bone
BONE
, n.1.
A firm hard substance of a dull white color, composing some part of the frame of an animal body. The bones of an animal support all the softer parts, as the flesh and vessels. They vary in texture in different bones, and in different parts of the same bone. The long bones are compact in their middle portion, with a central cavity occupied by a network of plates and fibers, and cellular or spongy at the extremities. The flat bones are compact externally, and cellular internally. The bones in a fetus are soft and cartilaginous, but they gradually harden with age. The ends of the long bones are larger than the middle, which renders the articulations more firm, and in the fetus are distinct portions, called epiphyses. Bones are supplied with blood vessels, and in the fetus, or in a diseased state, are very vascular. They are probably also furnished with nerves and absorbents, though less easily detected in a sound state. They are covered with a thin, strong membrane, called the periosteum, which, together with the bones, has very little sensibility in a sound state, but when inflamed, is extremely sensible. Their cells and cavities are occupied by a fatty substance, called the medulla or marrow. They consist of earthy matter, rather more than half, gelatin, one sixteenth, and cartilage, about one third of the whole. The earthy matter gives them their solidity, and consists of phosphate of lime, with a small portion of carbonate of lime and phosphate of magnesia. 2.
A piece of bone, with fragments of meat adhering to it.To be upon the bones, is to attack. [Little used, and vulgar.]
To make no bones, is to make no scruple; a metaphor taken from a dog who greedily swallows meat that has no bones.
Bones, a sort of bobbins, made of trotter bones, for weaving lace; also dice.
BONE
,Verb.
T.
1.
To put whale bone into stays.