Forms: 1 bán, baan, 2–3 ban, 3–5 bon, (4 boen, buon), 4–5 boon, (boone, 5 bonne), 3– bone; north. 3–9 bane, 5 baan, bayne; (9 dial. bowne, byen). [Com. Teut.: OE. bán corresp. to OFris. and OS. bên (MD., Du., LG. been), OHG. (MHG. and mod.G.) bein, ON. bein (Sw. ben, Da. been):—OTeut. *baino(m), not appearing in Gothic, and (unlike names of parts of the body generally) not related to any words for ‘bone’ outside Teutonic. The ON., OHG., MHG., and Du., have, beside the general sense ‘bone,’ the specific sense ‘shank (of the leg),’ which is the ordinary sense in mod.Ger. Hence it has been suggested that the original meaning was ‘long bone’; and that the word may have connection with the ON. adj. bein-, nom. masc. beinn, ‘straight.’ But this is a bare conjecture; the standing of the ON. adj. being itself obscure. In English there has never been any tendency to the specific sense, for which OE. had sceanca SHANK.]
I. Properly.
1. The general name for each of the distinct parts which unitedly make up the skeleton or hard framework of the body of vertebrate animals.
They are distinguished, according to shape, as long, short, flat, and irregular bones; the long bones have an internal channel containing marrow. They are also named from their position, nature, form, etc., e.g., ankle-, arm-, back-, blade-, breast-, collar-, jaw-, splint-, thigh-bone, etc.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John xix. 36. Ne for-bræce ʓe nan ban on him.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9405. He wroght a felau of his ban.
1340. Ayenb., 148. Ase þe buones bereþ þe tendre uless.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxxvii. 27. Bones wenten to boones, eche to his ioynture.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. i. (1495), 99. The bones of the breste defende the herte.
1483. Cath. Angl., 20/1. From bane to bane, ossim.
1549. Compl. Scot., 152. The corrupit flesche is consumit fra the banis.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. v. 27. Fie how my bones ake.
1681. E. Sclater, Serm. Putney, 11. Weapons, that to be sure, draw no Blood, nor break any Bones.
1872. Huxley, Phys., i. 10. The bones … are masses either of cartilage, or of connective tissue hardened by being impregnated with phosphate and carbonate of lime.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., ii. 23. In the earlier stages of existence there are no bones at all.
Prov. Hard words break no bones.
b. pl. as material for agricultural or industrial processes.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 289. Bones are much used as a manure.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. xix. 396. Turnips … manured with bones.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 307. Bones are extensively employed by the cutler, comb and brush maker, chemist, confectioner, and agriculturist.
† c. Applied spec. to the fingers in the asseveration By these ten bones. Obs.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), 4, note. By thes bonys ten thei be to you vntrue.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, C iiij b. Martin sweares by his ten bones.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 193. By these tenne bones … hee did speake them to me.
d. Proverb. expression: Hard, or dry, as a bone.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, i. It’s as dry as a bone.
1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.
2. pl. The whole bones of the body collectively, the skeleton; also, by extension, the bodily frame, body, person (with pathetically humorous force).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. lvii. (1495), 172. The bones ben the sadnesse of the body.
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 267. Nothyng … That he myȝte inne his bones hyde, Bot a gaytes skynne.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iii. 108. Alarde … beganne to deffende well hys bones.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. x. 92/1. He [Latimer] ran as fast as his old bones would carry him.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., V. v. 41. Night hangs vpon mine eyes, my Bones would rest.
1605. Chron. K. Leir. What, breedes young bones already!
1694. R. L’Estrange, Æsop’s Fab., ii. 2 (J.). Puss had a Months Mind to be upon the Bones of him.
1709. J. Stevens, Quevedo’s Wks., 305. Feeding on me Day and Night, which has brought me to the very Bones.
1740. Christmas Entertainm., 16. Now (says she) take care of your bones between this and home.
1873. M. F. S., Lily Merton’s Summer, 28. Poor, pale, pretty little dear … she’ll never live to make old bones.
† b. Exclamation: bones of me! of you!
1588. Marprel. Ep. (Arb.), 44. The puritanes will be O the bones of you too badd for this kind of arguing.
1592. Chettle, Kind-harts Dr. (1841), 70. Bones a me!
c. The bones being the most permanent parts of the dead body, ‘bones’ is put for ‘mortal remains.’
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. l. 25. And he cwæþ Lædeþ mine ban of þison lande.
c. 1205. Lay., 32202. His ban beoð iloken faste i guldene cheste.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 84. Þe Chirche schal haue my Careyne And kepe mi Bones.
1592. Nashe, in Shaks. C. Praise, 5. Have his bones newe embalmed.
1616. Inscr. over Shakspere’s Grave. Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.
1651. Proc. Parliament, No. 82. 1255. He will reduce the place, or leave his bones before it.
1750. Gray, Elegy, xx. These bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial still erected nigh.
1880. Tennyson, Columbus. Then some one standing by my grave will say, ‘Behold the bones of Christopher Colon.’
3. The bony structure or substance considered as one of the components of the body; esp. in the expressions, blood and bone, flesh and bone, skin and bone, bred in the bone, etc. (Used as collect. sing.)
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. ii. 23. Adam ða cwæð ðis is nu ban or minum banum.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 194 (Gött.). Iesu him raysed in fless and ban.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 25. Loue byndiþ boþe blood & baan.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 72. It will not out of the fleshe that is bred in the bone.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 172. High birth, vigor of bone, desert in seruice.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xix. 13. Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh?
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. i. 1. What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., v. An immense brown horse displaying great symmetry of bone.
b. To the bone: through the flesh, so as to touch the bone; hence, to the inmost part, to the core. (Cf. backbone.) Also similarly In the bone.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15788. Ilk dint þat þai him gaf it reked to þe ban.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1059. They prile & poynten The folk right to the bare boon.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 62, ¶ 10 (J.). There was lately a young Gentleman bit to the Bone; who had now indeed recovered his Health, but is as lean as a Skeleton.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., iv. 17. A cook she certainly was, in the very bone and centre of her soul.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), I. III. xx. 267. He being Calvinist … she Lutheran … and strict to the bone.
c. fig.
1573. R. Scot, Hop Gard., Epist. Greedy to tast of the marrowe of gaines and loth to breake the bone of labour.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 84. The real blood and bone of human heroism.
1884. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., March, 517/1. The Chauteaus, lieutenants of Laclede, and others … made part of the choicest early bone and sinew of the country.
4. The material or substance of the bones (in prec. senses), which consists of animal matter, ossein, and salts of carbonate and phosphate of lime in varying proportions.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., I. in Ashm. (1652), 129. Dry as askys of Tre or Bone.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 45. Many a ring of poised gold and bone.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 290. The basis of bone is constituted by earthy salts.
1855. Owen, Skel. & Teeth, 165. The primitive basis, or ‘blastema,’ of bone is a subtransparent glairy matter.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., vi. 83. Implements and weapons formed exclusively of wood and bone and stone.
b. Applied to other animal substances more or less akin to bone; as the dentine of the teeth, the ivory of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc. (See WHALEBONE.)
a. 700. Erfurt Gloss., 351 (O. E. T.). Ebor, elpendes ban. Corpus Gl., 712. Ebor, elpendbaan.
c. 1205. Lay., 23778. Ane sielde gode he wes al clane of olifantes bane.
a. 1450. Sir Eglam., 1083. Crystyabelle, yowre doghtur bryght, As whyte as bone of whalle.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 332. His teeth as white as Whales bone.
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. 67 (N.). An ivory dart she held of good command; White was the bone.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 295. There are upwards of three hundred of these plates of whalebone on each side of the jaw.
1870. Nicholson, Zool., 462. The so-called ‘bone’ of the skeleton of Fishes is only occasionally true osseous tissue.
5. Applied to various articles, originally or usually manufactured of bone, ivory, whalebone, etc.
a. pl. Dice.
c. 1386, etc. [see BICCHED b].
a. 1529. Skelton, Wks. (ed. Dyce), I. 52. On the borde he whyrled a payre of bones.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, I. Wks. 1778, III. 433. Thou won’st my money too, with a pair of base bones.
1724. Swift, Wood’s Exec., Wks. 1755, V. II. 157. Gamester. I’ll make his bones rattle.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xii. If thine ears have heard the clatter of the devil’s bones.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvii. No, no, Becky … We must have the bones in.
b. pl. Pieces of bone struck or rattled, to make rude music; esp. two pieces of bone or ivory held between the fingers of each hand and rattled together as an accompaniment to the banjo or other instrument; chiefly used by ‘nigger minstrels.’ Also humorously used as a name for the player. (Cf. also MARROWBONE.)
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., IV. i. 33. Wilt thou heare some musicke … Let vs haue the tongs and the bones.
1851. Househ. Words, III. 245. Now, the Ethiopians … play old banjoes and bones.
1865. Times, 17 July, 5/3. In the Nave, bands of amateur negro melodists, ‘The White Lilies of the Prairie’ thumbed the banjo and rattled the bones.
1884. Sat. Rev., 7 June, 740/1. A single row of negro minstrels seated on chairs … while at the end are Bones and Sambo.
c. pl. ‘A sort of bobbins, made of trotter bones, for weaving bonelace.’ J.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. iv. 46. The free maides that weaue their thred with bones.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., 9. Bones, bobbins, because probably made at first of small Bones. Hence Bone-lace.
d. A strip of whalebone used to stiffen stays, etc.; also attrib., as in bone-casing.
1595. Gosson, Pleas. Quippes, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 256. These privie coates, by art made strong With bones.
1884. Dress Cutting Assoc. Circular, ii. All the seams should be opened, the edges neatly over-handed, and bone casings put on.
Mod. She had the misfortune to break one of the bones of her stays.
e. Also in various comb. as Guile bones, Ten-bones, Napier’s bones, etc., q.v. † St. Hugh’s bones: see quot.
1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, iv. (1862), 15. Skoomaker, have you all your tools … your hand-and thumb-leathers and good Saint-Hughs bones to smooth up your work.
6. A bone (or part of one) ‘with as much flesh as adheres to it, a fragment of meat’ (J.). Often in comb. as aitch-, knuckle-, marrow-bone, etc.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knights T., 319. We stryuen as dide the houndes for the boon.
c. 1420. Proverb, in Rel. Ant., I. 233. Two dogges and one bone Maye never accorde in one.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxvii. 193. ‘I’ll gie ye something better than that beef bane, man.’
1837. Disraeli, Corr. w. Sister (1886), 76. I … supped … with a large party off oysters, Guiness, and broiled bones.
b. Bones (fig.): something relished.
1884. Tupper, Heart, vii. 61. ‘Now, that’s what I call bones.’ It was a currish image, suggestive of the choicest satisfaction.
c. A bone to pick or gnaw: something to occupy one as a bone does a dog; a difficulty to solve, a ‘nut to crack.’ To have a bone to pick with one: to have a matter of dispute, or something disagreeable or needing explanation, to settle with a person.
1565. Calfhill, Answ. Treat. Crosse (1846), 277. A bone for you to pick on.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 30. Some Archplayer … will cast me a bone or ii to pick.
1602. Fulbecke, Pandectes, 69. He … gaue them a bone to gnawe, Date quod est Cæsaris Cæsari, and quod Dei Deo.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), I. s.v. Pick, To give one a bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicĕre.
1850. H. Rogers, Ess., II. II. (1874), 103. Many a ‘bone’ in these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to ‘pick’ with the author.
7. Bone of contention, discord, etc.: something that causes contention, discord, etc.; formerly also simply bone in phrase to cast a bone between: in allusion to the strife which a bone causes between dogs.
c. 1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 47. The diuell hath cast a bone to set stryfe Betweene you.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 425. This became such a bone of dissention between these deere friends.
1660. Trial Regic., 79. But you cast in Bones here to make some difference.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Antiq., XVI. xi. (1733), 439. By this Means she … cast in a Bone betwixt the Wife and the Husband.
1711. Countrey-Man’s Lett. to Curat, 33. The Liturgie, since it was first Hatched, has been the Bone of Contention in England.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 517. A great bone of contention between Scindiah & Holkar.
8. To make bones of or about (at, in, to do obs.): to make objections or scruples about, find difficulty in, have hesitation in or about. So Without more bones. Formerly also To find bones in, and similar phrases, referring to the occurrence of bones in soup, etc., as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed.
1459. Paston Lett., 331, I. 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere.
a. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rum., 381. Supped it up at once; She founde therein no bones.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke i. 28. He made no manier bones ne stickyng, but went in hande to offer up his only son Isaac.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxxxiii. 9. As for mans hand, they make no bones at it.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 325. What matter soever is intreated of, they never make bones in it.
1589. Nashe, Almond for P., 12 b. A boule of Beere, which … you tooke … and trilled it off without anie more bones.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. (1641), 227/1. Hee … makes no bone To swear by God (for, hee beleeves there’s none).
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 579. Who make no bones of the Lords promises, but devoure them all.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. II. 40. The Pope makes no bones to break … the Decrees.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxiv. (1884), 635. Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting the seat if he offered it to them?
1878. Simpson, Sch. Shaks., I. 51. Elizabeth was thus making huge bones of sending some £7000 over for the general purposes of the government in Ireland.
9. To put a bone in any one’s hood: an obs. humorous expression for To break (or ? cut off) his head; to have a bone in one’s leg, throat, etc.: as a feigned objection to the use of one’s legs, etc.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 337 b. He refused to speake, allegeyng that he had a bone in his throte, & could not speake.
1560. Nice Wanton, in Hazl., Dodsl., II. 170. Then, by the rood, A bone in your hood I shall put, ere it be long.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., iii. 203 (D.). I can’t go, for I have a Bone in my Leg.
II. Transferred and fig. senses.
† 10. The stone of stone-fruit (transl. L. os). Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Baruch vi. 42. Wymmen … sitten in weyes, brennynge boonys of olyues [Vulg. succendentes ossa olivarum].
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., II. 394. Nowe sette in peches boon.
11. A callous growth in different parts of the legs of horses, becoming as hard as bone; as in bone-spavin (see 17), ring-bone, etc.
12. The hard framework or ‘skeleton’ of anything, e.g., of a ship.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 209. The shipwracke of a Dutch Ship cald the Mauritias that laid her bones here.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 89. Curtains were taken down, mattresses explored, every bone in bed dislocated and washed.
1868. Baker, Cast up by Sea, iii. 46. Steer straight between the fires!… she’ll break her bones if she follows.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 106. The bones of the language gradually were weakened.
13. Min. ‘The slaty matter intercalated in coal-seams.’ Raymond, Mining Gloss., 1880.
14. † a. To carry the bone, i.e., one half of the stake, at the game of BONE-ACE. Obs. [Perhaps a distinct word connected with F. bon, bonne, good.]
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, in Singer, Hist. Cards (1816), 342. He that hath the biggest card carries the bone, that is one half of the stake.
b. Naut. To carry a bone in the mouth or teeth: said of a ship, when she makes the water foam before her.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 10. If the Bow be too broad, she will seldome carry a Bone in her mouth or cut a feather, that is, to make a fome before her.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., v. See how she leaps … and speeds away with a bone in her mouth.
III. Comb. and Attrib.
15. simple attrib. (or adj.). Of bone.
1488. Inv. Jas. III., in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), II. 393. Item a bane coffre, and in it a grete cors of gold.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 419. A bone or ivory folding stick.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., v. 150. These cavemen were very ingenious, and excellent workers in flint … their bone pins, &c., are beautifully polished.
16. General relations: a. attrib. (consisting of, pertaining to, made of, or obtained from bones) as bone-cartilage, -cell, gelatine, -glue, -knife, -knowledge, -pus, -salt, -snacks, -tissue, yard. b. objective with pr. pple., vbl. sb., or agent-noun, as bone-boiling, -breaking, -crushing, -gnawer, -grinding, -piercing, -rotting; c. similative, as bone-like, -dry, -white, adjs.
c. 1865. Letheby, in Circ. Sc., I. 96/2. Refuse grease from glue-making and *bone-boiling.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 50. The bone setting and *bone breaking hundred-mile road.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 856/2. *Bone-cells appear in the ossified intercellular tissue.
1676. W. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., x. (1848), 268. The burden of that congregation very ponderous and only not *bone-crushing.
c. 1865. Circ. Sc., I. 332/2. *Bone-gelatine is obtained by boiling bones in water.
1884. Athenæum, 6 Dec., 727/1. The … *bone-gnawer of ‘Kent’s Cavern.’
1839. H. Rogers, Essays (1874), II. iii. 143. Nothing would be gained but ridicule if we were to substitute *‘bone-knowledge’ for ‘osteology.’
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 930/2. Covered with the *bone-like substance.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. iii. 183. A thrice-turn’d, *bone-pick’t subject gnaw.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, II. xxxii. (1640), 127. The *bone-rotting vice of envy.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 930. The cells … receiving into their interior the *bone-salts.
1855. Holden, Hum. Osteol. (1878), 16. This mixture of earthy granules and animal matter we call *‘bone-tissue.’
1850. ‘H. Hieover’ (C. Brindley), Pract. Horsemanship, Introd. p. xiii. She [a mare] is the ‘milk-white.’ Now there is a breed of *‘bone-whites,’ of a bluish tinge, with blackish muzzles, manes, tails, and legs.
1883. C. D. Warner, in Century Mag., XXVII. 3/1. Torture them [old horses] in their last hours on the way to the *bone-yard.
17. Special comb.: † bone-ache, ague, pain in the bones; bone-ash, the mineral residue of bones burnt in contact with air, a white, porous and friable substance, composed chiefly of phosphate of lime; † bone-baster (see quot.); bone-bed, a geological stratum abounding with bones of animals; bone-black, the product of the carbonization of bones, extensively used as a decolorizing and deodorizing agent, as a pigment, etc.; bone-breaker, he who or that which breaks bones; a name of the Osprey (L. ossifraga, Ger. Beinbrecher); also attrib.; bone-breccia, breccia containing many fragments of bones; bone-brown, a pigment obtained from bones or ivory by roasting till rendered uniformly brown; bone-cave, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals; bone-charcoal = bone-black; bone-dog, a kind of Dog-fish; bone-dust, bones ground for manuring purposes; bone-earth = bone-ash; bone-fat, marrow; bone-fever, ‘phlegmonous inflammation of the hand and arm, often seen in workers in bone’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); bone-fish (see quots.); bone-flower, dial. name of the daisy (J. Hutton, Tour Caves, Gloss.); bone-grease, or Sc. bane-grease, ‘the oily substance produced from bones, bruised and stewed on a slow fire’ (Jamieson); bone-grubber = bone-picker; bone-house, a charnel-house; a coffin; the human body; bone-manure, a manure prepared from bones; bone-mill, a mill for grinding or crushing bones or bone-black; bone-nippers (Surgery), ‘cutting forceps, used in the removal of bone’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); bone-oil, a fetid, blackish-brown, thick oil obtained by the dry distillation of bones, and in the preparation of bone-black; bone-picker, one who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, etc.; bone-polisher (slang), the cat-o’-nine tails, or the man who wields it; bone-shaker, a humorous name given to the bicycle as it existed before the introduction of india-rubber tires and other improvements; bone-spavin, a bony excrescence or hard swelling on the inside of a hock of a horse’s leg; bone-spirit, a crude ammoniacal liquor obtained from bone; † bone-work, work done with bone bobbins (applied to bone-lace). Also BONE-LACE, -SET, -SETTER, -SHAW, -WORT.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 20. The vengeance on the whole Camp, or, rather the *bone-ach.
1659. Clobery, Div. Glimpses, 35 (Halliw.). They a *bone-ague get to plague their crimes.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 284. The Assay-master tooke foure copples or teasts, which are made of *Bone-ashes.
1822. J. Platts, Bk. Curiosities, lxxiv. 719. The rest, or cupel, which was composed of bone-ash, was tinctured with a beautiful pink colour.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, iv. 64. And lets him see *Bone-baster; thats his staffe.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 194. In the upper Silurian Rocks; in a *bone-bed of the Downton sandstone.
1815. Specif. J. Taylor’s Patent, No. 3929. Bones converted either into ivory or *bone black, animal charcoal, or into white bone ash.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. 160. Known as animal charcoal, or bone black.
1598. Florio, Ossifraga, a kind of hauke or eagle called a *bone-breaker.
1721–1800. Bailey, Bone-breaker, a kind of Eagle.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 249. In a *bone-breccia of this nature the flint-implements would be relatively more abundant. Ibid., 63. Our knowledge of this ancient period is derived principally from … the *Bone-Caves.
1878. A. Ramsay, Phys. Geog., xxviii. 459. Bone-caves … always occur in limestone strata.
1859. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (ed. 3), II. 519. The Picked Dog-fish … along the south-eastern coast … is almost universally called the *Bone-Dog.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 397. Effects of *bone-dust and bones.
1848. Gard. Chron., 437. The clergyman had … put a handful of bone-dust under every tree and shrub.
1734. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 317. Mormyrus, ex cinereo nigricans, the *Bone-Fish.
1809. Kendall, Trav., II. lii. 204. The species of whale taken was … the bone-fish … valued for the article called in commerce whale-bone.
1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed *bone-grubber.
1799. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 3/2. The *bone-house in the Church yard.
1846. Walbran, Guide Ripon. The celebrated ‘Bone-house’ no longer exists.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., vi. 119. This wonderful bone-house which is called man.
a. 1848. Marryat, R. Reefer, lvii. Master at arms, brush up the *bone-polishers.
1837. E. Howard, Old Commodore, II. 192. He became body servant, and bone-polisher No. 2.
1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871 the low, long *‘bone-shaker’ began to fall in public esteem.
1883. C. Spenser, in Echo, 1 Sept., 1/6. The bicycle of the present day differs [greatly] from the ‘bone-shaker’ I introduced into England in 1868.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 316. The dry spaven … is a great hard knob … in the inside of the hough … called of some the *bone-spaven.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1099/2. A faire hat of veluet, with a broad *bone-worke lace about it.
