• Bone

    Pronunciation

    Origin 1

    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

    Noun

    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, Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie." Chapter Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone, 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 One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.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.
    6. (US, informal) A dollar.
    7. (slang) An erect penis; a boner.
    8. (slang) Dominoes or dice.
    9. (slang) Form of shortened form

    Synonyms

    • (rigid parts of a corset) rib, stay

    Full definition of bone

    Adjective

    bone

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

    Verb

    1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
    2. To fertilize with bone.
    3. To put whalebone into.to bone stays
    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

    Derived terms

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

    Origin 2

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

    Verb

    1. (transitive, slang) To apprehend, steal.

    Origin 3

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

    Verb

    1. (carpentry, masonry, surveying) To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.
      • W. M. BuchananJoiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges.

    Anagrams

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