bone Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun rigid connective tissue that makes up the skeleton of vertebrates
    os.
  2. noun the porous calcified substance from which bones are made
    osseous tissue.
  3. noun a shade of white the color of bleached bones
    pearl; ivory; off-white.
  4. verb study intensively, as before an exam
    drum; grind away; swot up; bone up; get up; cram; mug up; swot.
    • I had to bone up on my Latin verbs before the final exam
  5. verb remove the bones from
    debone.
    • bone the turkey before roasting it
  6. adjective satellite consisting of or made up of bone
    • a bony substance
    • the bony framework of the body

WordNet

Bone noun
Etymology
OE. bon, ban, AS. ban; akin to Icel. bein, Sw. ben, Dan. & D. been, G. bein bone, leg; cf. Icel. beinn straight.
Definitions
  1. (Anat.) The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcic carbonate, calcic phosphate, and gelatine; as, blood and bone. ✍ 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Anything made of bone, as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
  4. pl. Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music.
  5. pl. Dice.
  6. Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset.
  7. Fig.: The framework of anything.
Bone transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Boned ; present participle & verbal noun Boning
Definitions
  1. To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery. "To bone a turkey." Soyer.
  2. To put whalebone into; as, to bone stays. Ash.
  3. To fertilize with bone.
  4. To steal; to take possession of. Slang
Bone transitive verb
Etymology
F. bornoyer to look at with one eye, to sight, fr. borgne one-eyed.
Definitions
  1. 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.
    Joiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges. W. M. Buchanan.

Webster 1913