bone

Etymology 1

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“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”), Norwegian and Icelandic bein (“bone”), 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.

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. 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, page 63
2. (countable) Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.
3. A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
4. 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. 2019, Scott Sadil, “Tres Bocas”, in California Fly Fisher
5. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
6. One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
7. Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
8. (figurative) The framework of anything.
9. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
   bone:
10. (US, informal) A dollar.
11. (American football, informal) The wishbone formation.
12. (slang) An erect penis; a boner.
13. (slang, chiefly in the plural) A domino or dice.
14. (slang) 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. 2006, Sean Conway, Gillis Huckabee, page 140
15. (figurative) A reward.
    When I'm a good dog they sometimes throw me a bone in 1979, Pink Floyd, Nobody Home

adj

1. 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. 1949, Kenneth Lewis Roberts, I Wanted to Write, page 44
   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. 1977, Prosper Montagné, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon, The New Larousse Gastronomique, page 73
   Then it is boned; keeping the bone in during cooking improves the flavour and enriches the meat with calcium. 2009, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, page 379
   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. 2011, Aliza Green, Steve Legato, The Fishmonger's Apprentice, page 38
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.” July 9 1859, The Economist, page 758
3. To put whalebone into.
   Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps. 1871, Figure-Training
4. (civil engineering) To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
   boning rod
5. (vulgar, slang, usually of a man, transitive, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse (with).
   We're bonin' on the dark blocks / Wearin' out the shocks, wettin' up the dashboard clock 1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J
   Stash in the buildin wit this chick named Alona / From Daytona, when I was young I wants to bone her 1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy
   […]These cats stay rapping about cars they don't own / I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don't bone 2006, “Sick of it all”, in Masta Ace (lyrics), Pariah
   When we return we'll find out which one of our six remaining contestants' dreams will be totally ruined, like your mom's reputation after I bone her face. 2007, Stacey Deddo, The Elimination Special, Part II: The Elimination (Drawn Together), season 3, episode 14, spoken by The Jew Producer (James Arnold Taylor), via Comedy Central
   I swear on the good book that if you pull through, I will bone Travis Junior. 2007, Reno Mounties (Reno 911!), season 4, episode 11, spoken by Deputy Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong), via Comedy Central
   I'd been boning French chicks for a while now and was always shocked to see how many able-bodied young white women had no qualms about being on welfare. 2012, Gavin McInnes, The Death of Cool: From Teenage Rebellion to the Hangover of Adulthood, Simon and Schuster, page 89
6. (Australia, dated, in Aboriginal culture) 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". 1962, Arthur Upfield, The Will of the Tribe, Collier Books, page 48
7. (usually with "up") 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." 1896, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Chums
8. To polish boots to a shiny finish.
   […] the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits […] c. 1980, F. van Zy, SADF National Service (1979-1980), archived from the original on 2004-06-22
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! 1950, Asphalt Jungle

Etymology 2

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

verb

1. (transitive, slang) 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.” 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, page 127
   […]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. 1915, William Roscoe Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay
   But troll's old seat is much the same, And the bone he boned from its owner 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Root of the Boot”, in Songs for the Philologists
   Therefore she wants to take results that belong to other people: she wants to bone everybody else's loaf. 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 802

Etymology 3

Borrowed from 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.
   Joiners, &c., bone their work with two straight edges. 1846, W. M. Buchanan, A Technological Dictionary, page 151

Etymology 4

Clipping of trombone

noun

1. (slang) Clipping of trombone.