bones


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bone

 (bōn)
n.
1.
a. The dense, semirigid, porous, calcified connective tissue forming the major portion of the skeleton of most vertebrates. It consists of a dense organic matrix and an inorganic, mineral component.
b. Any of numerous anatomically distinct structures making up the skeleton of a vertebrate animal. There are more than 200 different bones in the human body.
c. A piece of bone.
2. bones
a. The skeleton.
b. The body: These old bones don't do much dancing anymore.
c. Mortal remains: His bones are buried up on the hill.
3. An animal structure or material, such as ivory, resembling bone.
4. Something made of bone or of material resembling bone, especially:
a. A piece of whalebone or similar material used as a corset stay.
b. bones Informal Dice.
5. bones The fundamental plan or design, as of the plot of a book.
6.
a. bones Flat clappers made of bone or wood originally used by the end man in a minstrel show.
b. Bones(used with a sing. verb) The end man in a minstrel show.
7. Vulgar Slang The penis.
v. boned, bon·ing, bones
v.tr.
1. To remove the bones from: bone a fish.
2. To stiffen (a piece of clothing) with stays, as of whalebone.
3. Vulgar Slang To have sexual intercourse with. Used especially of a man.
v.intr.
Vulgar Slang To have sexual intercourse.
Phrasal Verb:
bone up
Informal To study, often in preparation for an anticipated event: boned up for the final exam.
Idioms:
bone of contention
The subject of a dispute.
bone to pick
Grounds for a complaint or dispute.
in (one's) bones
In one's innermost feelings: knew in my bones that I was wrong.
to the bone
To an extreme degree: was chilled to the bone; cut the budget to the bone.

[Middle English bon, from Old English bān.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Bones

See also anatomy; body, human.

Medicine. a disease resulting from abnormal activity of the pituitary gland in which bones of the extremities are enlarged. — acromegalic, adj.
1. a branch of medical science that studies fractures.
2. a treatise on fractures.
Obsolete, a skeleton.
the breaking of a bone into small pieces.
organic change into a hornlike form.
the science of skull description. — craniographer, n.craniographic, craniographical, adj.
the shaft section of a long bone. — diaphytical, adj.
a joint or articulation, as that at the knee, which allows maximum movement.
an abnormal calcareous growth on a bone or tooth. See also plants.
an abnormal physical condition characterized by extensive structural defects of the skeleton and by gross mental deficiency.
an immovable joint, the bone being fixed in its socket in such a way that it does not move.
any abnormal curvature of the bones, especially forward curvature of the spine, resulting in a hollow in the back. — lordotic, adj.
1. the act of dislocating a bone or putting a joint out of position.
2. the condition of dislocation or being out of joint.
a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead. See also death.
the breaking of a bone either to correct a deformity or to reset a bone that has healed badly after a fracture. See also bodily functions.
the study of bones for descriptive purposes. — osteographer, n.osteographic, osteographical, adj.
the branch of anatomy that studies the skeleton. Also called skeletology.osteologist, osteologer, n.osteologie, osteological, adj.
softening of the bones resulting from malnutrition and the consequent loss of essential salts from the bones.
divination by the examination of bones. — osteomantic, adj.
the measurement of bones.
1. study of diseases of the bones.
2. any disease of the bone. — osteopathologist, n.osteopathologic, osteopathological, adj.
1. a disease of the bone.
2. a therapeutic system based upon the premise that restoring or maintaining health requires manipulation of the skeleton and muscles to preserve normal structure. — osteopath, osteopathist, n.osteopathie, adj.
the surgical practice of bone-grafting.
the rarefaction of bone, resulting in abnormally porous and weak bony tissue.
1. the dissection or anatomy of bones.
2. the cutting of bones as part of a surgical operation. — osteotomist, n.
ossification or the process of bone formation.
a form of divination in which a shoulder blade is heated in a fire and the resulting cracks in the bone are consulted for omens. — scapulomantic, adj.
the study of jawbones. — siagonologic, siagonological, adj.
osteology.
a form of divination by means of an animal’s shoulder blade. — spatulamantic, adj.
the growing together or the fixed or almost fixed union of two bones, as the two halves of the lower jaw. — symphyseal, symphysial, symphystic, adj.
the joining of two or more bones by muscle.
1. an abnormally turned condition of a bone in part of the human body, especially the leg.
2. the condition of being bowlegged.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.bones - a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance
percussion instrument, percussive instrument - a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another
plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
References in classic literature ?
"Come here directly, and set to work on these bones."
Brother will soon be back.' Then he asked his wife for more pudding, and as he ate, he threw the bones under the table.
In the course of his careful feeding of him, he gave him an occasional chicken bone. Two lessons, which would scarcely be called lessons, since both of them occurred within five minutes and each was not over half a minute in duration, sufficed to teach Michael that only on the floor of the room in the corner nearest the door could he chew chicken bones.
What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?
In that hole lies the bones of Chaka, the king who died for Baleka.
There were six divisions in the apartment, and each division was ornamented with a style of decoration peculiar to itself--and these decorations were in every instance formed of human bones! There were shapely arches, built wholly of thigh bones; there were startling pyramids, built wholly of grinning skulls; there were quaint architectural structures of various kinds, built of shin bones and the bones of the arm; on the wall were elaborate frescoes, whose curving vines were made of knotted human vertebrae; whose delicate tendrils were made of sinews and tendons; whose flowers were formed of knee-caps and toe-nails.
Go back to the lair of Dango and feed off the leavings of the hyenas, for Tarzan will leave no bones for Ska to pick in this empty wilderness of death."
"Oh, I'm learning bones to-day, and I like it so much.
Still, she could see nothing, and she remembered Mercedes Higgins' words "THEY ARE LIKE DOGS WRANGLING OVER BONES. JOBS ARE BONES, YOU KNOW"
We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of catacombs.
Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's articulated bones. In fact, as the great Hunter says, the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it.
The roof is about twelve feet high, and runs to a pretty sharp angle, as if there were a regular ridge-pole there; while these ribbed, arched, hairy sides, present us with those wondrous, half vertical, scimetar-shaped slats of whale-bone, say three hundred on a side, which depending from the upper part of the head or crown bone, form those Venetian blinds which have elsewhere been cursorily mentioned.