"keep the bones green" meaning in English

See keep the bones green in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: keeps the bones green [present, singular, third-person], keeping the bones green [participle, present], kept the bones green [participle, past], kept the bones green [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,kept>|head=~bone􂀿s:􂁀}} keep the bones green (third-person singular simple present keeps the bones green, present participle keeping the bones green, simple past and past participle kept the bones green)
  1. (informal, idiomatic, dated) To maintain good health and vitality. Tags: dated, idiomatic, informal
    Sense id: en-keep_the_bones_green-en-verb-aVysK4ex Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,kept>",
        "head": "~bone􂀿s:􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "keep the bones green (third-person singular simple present keeps the bones green, present participle keeping the bones green, simple past and past participle kept the bones green)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To maintain good health and vitality."
      ],
      "id": "en-keep_the_bones_green-en-verb-aVysK4ex",
      "links": [
        [
          "maintain",
          "maintain"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "health",
          "health"
        ],
        [
          "vitality",
          "vitality"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic, dated) To maintain good health and vitality."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep the bones green"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the bones green",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,kept>",
        "head": "~bone􂀿s:􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "keep the bones green (third-person singular simple present keeps the bones green, present participle keeping the bones green, simple past and past participle kept the bones green)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To maintain good health and vitality."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "maintain",
          "maintain"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "health",
          "health"
        ],
        [
          "vitality",
          "vitality"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic, dated) To maintain good health and vitality."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep the bones green"
}

Download raw JSONL data for keep the bones green meaning in English (1.2kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.