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bone

Pronunciation: /bəʊn/

The English word “bone” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
  2. Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of this material.
  3. A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
  4. A bonefish.
  5. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
  6. One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
  7. Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
  8. The framework of anything.
  9. An off-white colour, like the typical colour of bone.
  10. A dollar.
  11. The wishbone formation.
  12. An erect penis; a boner.
  13. A domino or die.
  14. A cannabis cigarette; a joint.
  15. A reward.

adjective

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

verb

  1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
  2. To fertilize with bone.
  3. To put whalebone into.
  4. To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.

Etymology

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”). Cognate with Scots bane, been, bean, bein, bain (“bone”), North Frisian bian, Biin, biinj (“bone; leg”), West Frisian bien (“bone”), Dutch been (“bone; leg”), German Low German Been,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.