bone

noun16

1. •
   the hard, white material that gives the bodies of humans and many animals their shape
2. •
   Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of this material.

   • No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones. — 1599
3. •
   A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
4. •
   (figurative) A reward.

   • When I'm a good dog they sometimes throw me a bone in — 1979
5. •
   (figurative) The framework of anything.

   • This year thus far I have travelled to eight of our laboratories talking about quality, telling the people who work in our company that quality is the muscle and bone of our company. — 1988
6. •
   (slang, vulgar) An erect penis; a boner.
7. •
   (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
8. •
   An off-white colour, like the typical colour of bone.
9. •
   One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
10. •
    [in the plural] (slang) A domino or die.

    • Let's head to the casino and roll them bones!
11. •
    One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
12. •
    Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
13. •
    [in the plural] (US, informal) A dollar.
14. •
    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
15. •
    (informal) The wishbone formation.
16. •
    (slang) Clipping of trombone.

verb11

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
2. •
   To study.

   • “I know it. You do not study.” “What’s the use of boning all the time! I wasn’t cut out for it.” — 1896
3. •
   (slang, 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. — 1894
4. •
   (slang) To apprehend, steal.

   • But troll's old seat is much the same, And the bone he boned from its owner — 1936
5. •
   To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
6. •
   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
7. •
   To put whalebone into.

   • Having my stays very fully boned and fitted with shoulder-straps. — 1871
8. •
   To polish boots to a shiny finish.

   • […] the permanent boning (excessive polishing) of boots by recruits […] — 1980
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
10. •
    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.” — 1859
11. •
    (Australia, old-fashioned) 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

adjective1

1. •
   Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

adverb1

1. •
   Used before an adjective as an intensifier

   • GWF, well almost anyway, 40, bone-lonely, desperately needs a friend in Southern Maine. — 1979

noun1

1. •
   (slang) A Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft.