meatbone

C2+ Topic:Food & Drink

US /ˈmiːtˌboʊn/ UK /ˈmiːtˌbəʊn/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a bone with meat still attached, especially as food or scrap

The hungry traveler gnawed a meatbone by the fire.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a bone with meat still... bone-in meatscrap bone

More bone

Word family

Derived forms meatbones

Related forms meat bone

Etymology

A compound of meat + bone. Meat comes from Old English mete ("food"), while bone comes from Old English bān; the compound names a bone still carrying meat.

*meh₂d- Proto-Indo-European mete Old English bon Middle English bān Old English

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Topics

Food & Drink

# meatbone

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈmiːtˌboʊn
**IPA (UK):** ˈmiːtˌbəʊn

## Meanings
1. a bone with meat still attached, especially as food or scrap

## Examples
- The hungry traveler gnawed a meatbone by the fire.

## Synonyms
- bone-in meat
- scrap bone
- bone

## Derived Forms
- meatbones

## Related Forms
- meat
- bone

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *meh₂d-
- Root: mete
- Root: bon
- Root: bān

## Etymology
A compound of meat + bone. Meat comes from Old English mete ("food"), while bone comes from Old English bān; the compound names a bone still carrying meat.

## AI Etymology
Meatbone is a transparent compound of meat + bone. Meat goes back to Old English mete, originally food in general, while bone goes back to Old English bān. In Dickensian context it names a bone with meat still attached, something eaten or gnawed as rough food. Because meatbone is not a standard inflection of either meat or bone, it is treated as its own rare C2+ headword. The meaning follows directly from the compound parts: meat carried on a bone.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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meatbone

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