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.

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, →ISBN, page 63:

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

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

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 275, column 1:

(countable) Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.

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:

One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.

One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.

Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.

bone:

An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

(American football, informal) The wishbone formation.

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

2003, “Let Me Watch”, in Vaudeville Villain, performed by Viktor Vaughn ft. Apani B. Fly:

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.

1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:

(slang, chiefly in the plural) A domino or die.

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:

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

en-noun

bone (countable and uncountable, plural bones)

sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh

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.


bone

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


bone

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:

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

He cites an instance of land heavily boned 70 years ago as “still markedly luxuriant beyond any other grass land in the same district.”

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

boning rod

(civil engineering) To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.

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:

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.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 153:

[…]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, →ISBN, page 89:

(vulgar, slang, usually of a man, transitive, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse (with).

“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:

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

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:

[…] 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:

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!

en-verb

bone (third-person singular simple present bones, present participle boning, simple past and past participle boned)

bones (present singular third-person)
boning (participle present)
boned (participle past)
boned (past)


bone

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

1979 December 22, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 18:

Used before an adjective as an intensifier


bone

“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:

(transitive, slang) To apprehend, steal.

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


bone

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

1846, W. M. Buchanan, A Technological Dictionary, page 151:

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

(carpentry, masonry, surveying) To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.

Borrowed from French bornoyer (“to look at with one eye, to sight”), from borgne (“one-eyed”).