bone

noun

1. (uncountable)A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.

   “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 this material.

   “No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
4. (countable, uncountable)A bonefish.

   “The reason I rarely fish for Mag Bay bones with a 5-weight or 6-weight is the number of fish that can turn light stuff inside out.”

5. (countable, uncountable)One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
6. (countable, uncountable)One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
7. (countable, uncountable)Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
8. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)The framework of anything.
9. (countable, uncountable)An off-white colour, like the typical colour of bone.
10. (US, countable, in-plural, informal, uncountable)A dollar.
11. (countable, informal, uncountable)The wishbone formation.
12. (countable, slang, uncountable)An erect penis; a boner.

    “Speakin' on the phone, for hours on end / On the bone from just listenin', and then:”

13. (countable, in-plural, slang, uncountable)A domino or die.

    “Let's head to the casino and roll them bones!”

    “The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones.”

14. (countable, slang, uncountable)A cannabis cigarette; a joint.

    “In between sets I took her outside, sat against a fence near the dumpster, and smoked a bone with her.”

15. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)A reward.

    “When I'm a good dog they sometimes throw me a bone in”

16. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang)Clipping of trombone.
17. (slang)A Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

verb

1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “Then it is boned; keeping the bone in during cooking improves the flavour and enriches the meat with calcium.”

   “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.

   “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.

   “Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps.”

4. To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.

   “boning rod”

5. (ambitransitive, slang, usually, vulgar)To have sexual intercourse (with).

   “O Memmius, well and slowly did you bone me, supine, day by day, with the whole of that beam.”

   “We’re bonin’ on the dark blocks / Wearin’ out the shocks, wettin’ up the dashboard clock”

   “Stash in the buildin wit this chick named Alona / From Daytona, when I was young I wants to bone her”

   “We were sitting in the student union between classes, and I had just been trying to decide which one of them I was gonna bone first that night.”

   “[…]These cats stay rapping about cars they don't own / I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don't bone”

6. (Australia, dated)To perform “bone pointing”, a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.

   ““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)To study.

   “bone up”

   ““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.

   “[…] the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits […]”

9. To nag, especially for an unpaid debt.

   “Dix Handley: Don’t bone me! Cobby: Now look, I’m not boning you, Dix— Dix: Did I ever welsh? Cobby: Nobody said you did— Dix: You just boned me!”

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

    ““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.””

    “[…]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.”

    “But troll's old seat is much the same, And the bone he boned from its owner”

    “Therefore she wants to take results that belong to other people: she wants to bone everybody else's loaf.”

11. To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.

    “Joiners, &c., bone their work with two straight edges.”

adv

1. (not-comparable)Used before an adjective as an intensifier

   “GWF, well almost anyway, 40, bone-lonely, desperately needs a friend in Southern Maine.”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
2. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Bonneville County, Idaho, United States, named after Orion Jost Bone.