bone

bone

I

bone¹ S2 W2 /bəʊn $ boʊn/ noun1. [countable] one of the hard parts that together form the frame of a human, animal, or fish body:
    The X-ray showed that the bone was broken in two places.
    hip/leg/cheek etc bone (=the bone in your hip etc)
    He broke his collar bone.
    big-boned/fine-boned/small-boned etc (=with big etc bones)
    She was tall and big-boned.
    Amelia had inherited her mother’s good bone structure.
2. [uncountable] a substance made of bones:
    the bone handle of his dagger
3. the bare bones the simplest and most important details of something:
    I can’t tell you more than the bare bones of what happened.
4. make no bones about (doing) something to not feel nervous or ashamed about doing or saying something:
    Mary made no bones about enjoying a drink.
5. bone of contention something that causes arguments between people:
    The examination system has long been a serious bone of contention in this country.
6. be chilled/frozen to the bone to be extremely cold
7. skin and bone very thin:
    She was all skin and bone.
8. a bag of bones someone who is much too thin
9. feel/know something in your bones to be certain that something is true, even though you have no proof and cannot explain why you are certain:
    She knew that something good was sure to happen; she could feel it in her bones.
10. have a bone to pick with somebody spoken used to tell someone that you are annoyed with them and want to talk about it
11. close to the bone a remark, statement etc that is close to the bone is close to the truth in a way that may offend someone:
    His jokes were a bit close to the bone.
12. cut something to the bone to reduce costs, services etc as much as possible:
    Shops cut prices to the bone in the January sales.
13. on the bone meat that is served on the bone is still joined to the bone:
    a boiled ham on the bone
14. off the bone meat that is served off the bone has been cut away from the bone:
    roasted duck, off the bone
⇨ dry as a bone at dry¹(1), ⇨ work your fingers to the bone at work¹(29)
     

COLLOCATIONS

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + bone
   ▪ broken The doctor thought that I had a broken bone in my wrist. | Luckily the bone wasn't broken.
   ▪ a thigh/hip/ankle etc bone He was so thin that his hip bones were sticking out.
   ▪ human/animal bones They dug up a lot of human bones from under the castle.
■ verbs
   ▪ break a bone I hope you haven't broken a bone.
   ▪ fracture a bone (=to break a bone so that a line appears on the surface) Sally fell, fracturing a bone in her leg.
■ bone + NOUN
   ▪ bone structure (=the shape of your face, formed by the bones in it) She had beautiful eyes and fine bone structure.
   ▪ bone disease He suffered from a rare bone disease.

II

bone² verb [transitive]
to remove the bones from fish or meat:
    boned breast and thigh meat
     
bone up on something phrasal verb
  to learn as much as you can about a subject, because you need the knowledge, for example for an examination:
    I have to bone up on criminal law for a test next week.