bone
UK /bəʊn/ · US /boʊn/ noun, adjective, verb, adverb, proper noun
Forms bones boning boned bane byen
- noun (uncountable) A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
- noun (countable) Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of this material.
- noun A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
- noun A bonefish.
- noun One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
- noun One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
- noun Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
- noun (figurative) The framework of anything.
- adjective Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
- verb To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
- verb To fertilize with bone.
- verb To put whalebone into.
- verb (civil engineering) To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line. “boning rod”
- verb (vulgar, slang, usually of a man, ambitransitive) To have sexual intercourse (with).
- verb (Australia, dated, in Aboriginal culture) To perform “bone pointing”, a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.
- verb (usually with "up") To study. “bone up”
- verb To polish boots to a shiny finish.
- adverb Used before an adjective as an intensifier
- verb (transitive, slang) To apprehend, steal.
- verb (carpentry, masonry, surveying) To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.
Synonyms
rib stay doggy treat os debone unbone approach cohabit common company copulate couple engage in sex exchange flesh have intimate relations have marital relations have sex have sexual relations intercourse know osseous tissue ivory pearl off-white cram grind away drum bone up swot get up
Etymology
From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”).
Cognate with Scots bane, been, bean, bein, bain (“bone”), North Frisian bian, Biin, biinj (“bone; leg”), West Frisian bien (“bone”), Dutch been (“bone; leg”), German Low German Been, Bein (“bone”), German Bein (“leg”), German Gebein (“bones”), Swedish ben (“bone; leg”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Icelandic bein (“bone; leg”), Breton benañ (“to cut, hew”), Latin perfinēs (“break through, break into pieces, shatter”), Avestan 𐬠𐬫𐬈𐬥𐬙𐬈 (byente, “they fight, hit”). Related also to Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”) (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.
Unknown; probably related in some way to Etymology 1, above.
Borrowed from French bornoyer (“to look at with one eye, to sight”), from borgne (“one-eyed”).
Clipping of trombone.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcic carbonate, calcic phosphate, and gelatine; as, blood and bone.
- noun 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.
- verb To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery. "To bone a turkey." Soyer.
- verb To put whalebone into; as, to bone stays. Ash.
Etymology [OE. bon, ban, AS. ban; akin to Icel. bein, Sw. ben, Dan. & D. been, G. bein bone, leg; cf. Icel. beinn straight.]
Etymology [F. bornoyer to look at with one eye, to sight, fr. borgne one-eyed.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bone”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details