[f. BONE sb. 5 c + LACE.]
1. Lace, usually of linen thread, made by knitting upon a pattern marked by pins, with bobbins originally made of bone; formerly called bone-work lace; now largely superseded by bobbin-net.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Ep. (1577), 316. To see her … take her cushin for bone lace, or her rocke to spinne.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 94/3. Our Manufactures … of Points and Bone-laces.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 61, ¶ 4. [They] should be sent to knit, or sit down to Bobbins or Bone-lace.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 4. Its chief manufactures are the different kinds of woollen cloths, as also of bone-lace.
2. attrib. and in comb., as bone-lace-edging, -maker.
1634. Simp. Reasons, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 178. Davison a bonelace-maker.
1883. Daily News, 26 June, 5/7. An Innish-macsaint body-trimming and a bone-lace edging.
