bone

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One of the hard white parts that form the skeleton of a person or animal.

   She fell off her bike and broke a bone in her arm.

2. 2
   noun

   The hard material that the skeleton is made of.

   The soup is made by boiling meat and bone for hours.

3. 3
   verb

   To remove the bones from meat or fish.

   The chef boned the chicken before roasting it.

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, Bein (“bone”), German Bein (“leg”), German Gebein (“bones”), Swedish ben (“bone; leg”), Norwegian and Icelandic bein (“bone”), Breton benañ (“to cut, hew”), Latin perfinēs (“break through, break into pi…

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