- bone
- [[t]bo͟ʊn[/t]]
♦♦♦bones, boning, boned1) N-VAR Your bones are the hard parts inside your body which together form your skeleton.
Many passengers suffered broken bones...
Stephen fractured a thigh bone...
The body is made up primarily of bone, muscle, and fat...
She scooped the chicken bones back into the stewpot.
2) VERB If you bone a piece of meat or fish, you remove the bones from it before cooking it.[V n] Make sure that you do not pierce the skin when boning the chicken thighs...
[V-ed] The boned fish is so easy to serve.
3) ADJ: usu ADJ n A bone tool or ornament is made of bone....a small, expensive pocketknife with a bone handle.
4) → See also , T-bone steak5) PHRASE The bare bones of something are its most basic parts or details.There are not even the bare bones of a garden here - I've got nothing.
6) PHRASE: usu v-link PHR If something is too close to the bone, it makes you feel uncomfortable because it is very close to the truth or to the real nature of something.7) PHRASE: PHR after v If you say that you feel or know something in your bones, you are indicating that you are certain about it, although you cannot explain why.I've got a feeling in my bones that things are not quite right.
8) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR about n If you make no bones about something, you talk openly about it, rather than trying to keep it a secret.Some of them make no bones about their political views.
9) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR about -ing If you make no bones about doing something that is unpleasant or difficult or that might upset someone else, you do it without hesitating.Stafford-Clark made no bones about reapplying for the job when Daldry was standing for it.
10) PHRASE: bone inflects, v-link PHR (disapproval) You can say someone is just skin and bone when you do not approve of the fact that they are very thin.He was nothing but skin and bones.
11) PHRASE: PHR after v If something such as costs are cut to the bone, they are reduced to the minimum possible.It has survived by cutting its costs to the bone...
Profit margins have been slashed to the bone in an attempt to keep turnover moving.
12) PHRASE: PHR after v You use to the bone to indicate that you are very deeply affected by something. For example, if you feel chilled to the bone, your whole body feels extremely cold, often because you have had a shock.What I saw chilled me to the bone.
Phrasal Verbs:
English dictionary. 2008.
