Bone

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Bone, n. [OE. bon, ban, AS. bān; akin to Icel. bein, Sw. ben, Dan. & D. been, G. bein bone, leg; cf. Icel. beinn straight.].

•  The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and gelatine; as, blood and bone.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Anything made of bone, as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.  [1913 Webster]
•  Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music.  [1913 Webster]
•  Dice.  [1913 Webster]
•  Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: The framework of anything.  [1913 Webster]

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.<-- same as bone meal --> -- 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 (Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.), 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, v. t. 

•  To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery.  Soyer.  [1913 Webster]
•  To put whalebone into; as, to bone stays.  Ash.  [1913 Webster]
•  To fertilize with bone.  [1913 Webster]
•  To steal; to take possession of.  [1913 Webster]

Bone, v. 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.  [1913 Webster]
"Joiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges. W."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Bone, n. & v.
--n.
1 any of the pieces of hard tissue making up the skeleton in vertebrates.
2 (in pl.) a the skeleton, esp. as remains after death. b the body, esp. as a seat of intuitive feeling (felt it in my bones).
3 a the material of which bones consist. b a similar substance such as ivory, dentine, or whalebone.
4 a thing made of bone.
5 (in pl.) the essential part of a thing (the bare bones).
6 (in pl.) a dice. b castanets.
7 a strip of stiffening in a corset etc.
--v.
1 tr. take out the bones from (meat or fish).
2 tr. stiffen (a garment) with bone etc.
3 tr. Brit. sl. steal.

Idiom

bone china fine china made of clay mixed with the ash from bones. bone-dry quite dry. bone idle (or lazy) utterly idle or lazy. bone-meal crushed or ground bones used esp. as a fertilizer. bone of contention a source or ground of dispute. bone-setter a person who sets broken or dislocated bones, esp. without being a qualified surgeon. bone spavin see SPAVIN. bone up (often foll. by on) colloq. study (a subject) intensively. close to (or near) the bone
1 tactless to the point of offensiveness.
2 destitute; hard up. have a bone to pick (usu. foll. by with) have a cause for dispute (with another person).
make no bones about
1 admit or allow without fuss.
2 not hesitate or scruple. point the bone (usu. foll.
by at) Austral.
1 wish bad luck on.
2 cast a spell on in order to kill.
to the bone
1 to the bare minimum.
2 penetratingly. work one's fingers to the bone work very hard, esp. thanklessly.

Derivative

boneless adj.

Etymology

OE ban f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Bone

adamant, aitchbone, anklebone, anvil, backbone, bill, biscuit, bony, breastbone, brick, buck, calcaneus, cannon bone, carpal, cartilage, cement, chine, clavicle, coccyx, collarbone, con, concrete, contemplate, cracker, cranium, cubes, cuboid, diamond, dice, dig, drill, dust, elucubrate, examine, fibula, fish, flint, frogskin, funny bone, go over, granite, grind, hammer, heart of oak, hyoid bone, incus, iron, ivory, jawbone, kneecap, ligament, lucubrate, malleus, mandible, marble, maxilla, maxillary, metacarpal, metatarsal, mummy, nails, nasal bone, oak, occipital bone, osseous, ossicle, ossicular, ossiferous, ossified, osteal, parchment, patella, pelvis, peruse, phalanges, phalanx, plunge into, pore over, practice, pubis, rachidial, rachis, radius, read, regard studiously, restudy, review, rib, rock, sacrum, scaphoid, scapula, sesamoid bones, shinbone, shoulder blade, skin, skull, smacker, sphenoid, spinal column, spine, stapes, steel, sternum, stick, stirrup, stone, study, swot, talus, tarsus, temporal bone, tendon, thighbone, ulna, vertebra, vertebral column, vet, wade through, wishbone, wristbone, zygomatic bone

ROGET THESAURUS

Bone

Strength

N strength, power, energy, vigor, force, main force, physical force, brute force, spring, elasticity, tone, tension, tonicity, stoutness, lustihood, stamina, nerve, muscle, sinew, thews and sinews, physique, pith, pithiness, virtility, vitality, athletics, athleticism, gymnastics, feats of strength, adamant, steel, iron, oak, heart of oak, iron grip, grit, bone, athlete, gymnast, acrobat, superman, Atlas, Hercules, Antaeus, Samson, Cyclops, Goliath, tower of strength, giant refreshed, strengthening, invigoration, refreshment, refocillation, dynamics, statics, strong, mighty, vigorous, forcible, hard, adamantine, stout, robust, sturdy, hardy, powerful, potent, puissant, valid, resistless, irresistible, invincible, proof against, impregnable, unconquerable, indomitable, dominating, inextinguishable, unquenchable, incontestable, more than a match for, overpowering, overwhelming, all powerful, all sufficient, sovereign, able-bodied, athletic, Herculean, Cyclopean, Atlantean, muscular, brawny, wiry, well-knit, broad-shouldered, sinewy, strapping, stalwart, gigantic, manly, man-like, manful, masculine, male, virile, unweakened, unallayed, unwithered, unshaken, unworn, unexhausted, in full force, in full swing, in the plenitude of power, stubborn, thick-ribbed, made of iron, deep-rooted, strong as a lion, strong as a horse, strong as an ox, strong as brandy, sound as a roach, in fine feather, in high feather, built like a brick shithouse, like a giant refreshed, strongly, by force, by main force, our withers are unwrung, Blut und Eisen, coelitus mihi vires, du fort au diable, en habiles gens, ex vi termini, flecti non frangi, he that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves an, inflexible in faith invincible in arms.

Density

N density, solidity, solidness, impenetrability, impermeability, incompressibility, imporosity, cohesion, constipation, consistence, spissitude, specific gravity, hydrometer, areometer, condensation, caseation, solidation, solidification, consolidation, concretion, coagulation, petrification, crystallization, precipitation, deposit, precipitate, inspissation, gelation, thickening, indivisibility, indiscerptibility, insolubility, indissolvableness, solid body, mass, block, knot, lump, concretion, concrete, conglomerate, cake, clot, stone, curd, coagulum, bone, gristle, cartilage, casein, crassamentum, legumin, superdense matter, condensed states of matter, dwarf star, neutron star, dense, solid, solidified, caseous, pukka, coherent, cohesive, compact, close, serried, thickset, substantial, massive, lumpish, impenetrable, impermeable, nonporous, imporous, incompressible, constipated, concrete, knotted, knotty, gnarled, crystalline, crystallizable, thick, grumous, stuffy, undissolved, unmelted, unliquefied, unthawed, indivisible, indiscerptible, infrangible, indissolvable, indissoluble, insoluble, infusible.

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.