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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
bone
; a
bone
of the arm or leg
; also, any fragment of bony substance. (
pl.
) 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
stays
.
Ash.
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.
To take out bones from the flesh, as in cookery.
1.
To put whale bone into stays.

Definition 2024

bone

bone

See also: boné, bóne, bône, and Bône

English

Alternative forms

Noun

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.", London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, translation of original by Lanfranc of Milan, published 1894, ISBN 1163911380, 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. Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
  6. (figuratively) The framework of anything.
  7. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
    bone colour:    
  8. (US, informal) A dollar.
  9. (slang) An erect ****; a boner.
  10. (slang) Dominoes or dice.
  11. (slang) Short for trombone.
Synonyms
  • (rigid parts of a corset): rib, stay
Translations

Adjective

bone ‎(not comparable)

  1. Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

Verb

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.
    • c. 1980,, F. van Zy, SADF National Service (1979-1980):
      "...the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits"
Synonyms
Translations

Derived terms

See also

External links

Etymology 2

Origin unknown; probably related in some way to Etymology 1, above.

Verb

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, 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, 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

From French bornoyer to look at with one eye, to sight, from borgne one-eyed.

Verb

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?)
    • (Can we date this quote?), W. M. Buchanan, (Please provide the title of the work):
      Joiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges.

Anagrams

Esperanto

Etymology

bona ‎(“good”) +‎ -e

Pronunciation

Adverb

bone

  1. well, OK

Ido

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈbo.ne]

Adverb

bone

  1. well
    • 2008, Margrit Kennedy, Pekunio sen interesti ed inflaciono, page 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

Italian

Adjective

bone

  1. feminine plural of bono

Latin

Adjective

bone

  1. vocative masculine singular of bonus

References

Middle English

Noun

bone (plural bones)

  1. bone

Northern Sami

Verb

bone

  1. inflection of botnit:
    1. present indicative connegative
    2. second-person singular imperative
    3. imperative connegative

Old French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bõnə/

Adjective

bone

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

Venetian

Adjective

bone

  1. feminine plural of bon

Etymology

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 [script needed] ‎(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.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bōn, IPA(key): /boʊn/
  • (Australia) IPA(key): [bəʉn]
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): [bɐʉn]
  • (UK) IPA(key): [bəʊn]
  • (US) IPA(key): [boʊn]
  • Rhymes: -əʊn

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