n. [ For nachebone. For loss of n, cf. Adder. See Natch. ] The bone of the rump; also, the cut of beef surrounding this bone. [ Spelt also edgebone. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 2d back, n. + bone. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The column of bones in the back which sustains and gives firmness to the frame; the spine; the vertebral or spinal column. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything like , or serving the purpose of, a backbone. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lofty mountains on the north side compose the granitic axis, or backbone of the country. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

We have now come to the backbone of our subject. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Firmness; moral principle; steadfastness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shelley's thought never had any backbone. Shairp. [ 1913 Webster ]

To the backbone, through and through; thoroughly; entirely. “Staunch to the backbone.” Lord Lytton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Vertebrate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A very lean person; one whose bones show through the skin. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the absolute minimum necessary. [ PJC ]

a. having only the absolute minimum necessary; having only the essential components. [ PJC ]

n. [ F. belle et bonne, beautiful and good. ] A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness; a fair maid. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The scapula. See Blade, 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A terrible bugbear. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bon, ban, AS. bān; akin to Icel. bein, Sw. ben, Dan. & D. been, G. bein bone, leg; cf. Icel. beinn straight. ] 1. (Anat.) The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and gelatine; as, blood and bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Even in the hardest parts of bone there are many minute cavities containing living matter and connected by minute canals, some of which connect with larger canals through which blood vessels ramify. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One of the pieces or parts of an animal skeleton; as, a rib or a thigh bone; a bone of the arm or leg; also, any fragment of bony substance. (pl.) The frame or skeleton of the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Anything made of bone, as a bobbin for weaving bone lace. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. pl. Dice. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. Fig.: The framework of anything. [ 1913 Webster ]

A bone of contention, a subject of contention or dispute. --
A bone to pick, something to investigate, or to busy one's self about; a dispute to be settled (with some one). --
Bone ash, the residue from calcined bones; -- used for making cupels, and for cleaning jewelry. --
Bone black (Chem.), the black, carbonaceous substance into which bones are converted by calcination in close vessels; -- called also animal charcoal. It is used as a decolorizing material in filtering sirups, extracts, etc., and as a black pigment. See Ivory black, under Black. --
Bone cave, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals, mingled sometimes with the works and bones of man. Am. Cyc. --
Bone dust, ground or pulverized bones, used as a fertilizer. --
Bone earth (Chem.), the earthy residuum after the calcination of bone, consisting chiefly of phosphate of calcium. --
Bone lace, a lace made of linen thread, so called because woven with bobbins of bone. --
Bone oil, an oil obtained by heating bones (as in the manufacture of bone black), and remarkable for containing the nitrogenous bases, pyridine and quinoline, and their derivatives; -- also called Dippel's oil. --
Bone setter. Same as Bonesetter. See in the Vocabulary. --
Bone shark (Zool.), the basking shark. --
Bone spavin. See under Spavin. --
Bone turquoise, fossil bone or tooth of a delicate blue color, sometimes used as an imitation of true turquoise. --
Bone whale (Zool.), a right whale. --
To be upon the bones of, to attack. [ Obs. ] --
To make no bones, to make no scruple; not to hesitate. [ Low ] --
To pick a bone with, to quarrel with, as dogs quarrel over a bone; to settle a disagreement. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Boned p. pr. & vb. n. Boning. ] 1. To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery. “To bone a turkey.” Soyer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To put whalebone into; as, to bone stays. Ash. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fertilize with bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To steal; to take possession of. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ F. bornoyer to look at with one eye, to sight, fr. borgne one-eyed. ] To sight along an object or set of objects, to see if it or they be level or in line, as in carpentry, masonry, and surveying. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

Joiners, etc., bone their work with two straight edges. W. M. Buchanan. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Pain in the bones. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Bone black, under Bone, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having (such) bones; -- used in composition; as, big-boned; strong-boned. [ 1913 Webster ]

No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops' size. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Deprived of bones; as, boned turkey or codfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Manured with bone; as, boned land. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The spiny dogfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. without a trace of moisture. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) See Ladyfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a person of low intelligence; a dunce; a blockhead; -- used deprecatingly to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence or capabilities.
Syn. -- dunce, dunderhead, numskull, blockhead, lunkhead, hammerhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, muttonhead, shithead, fuckhead. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. very stupid; -- used of people or actions. [ informal ] -- bone"head*ed*ness, n.
Syn. -- blockheaded, fatheaded, loggerheaded, thick, thickheaded, thick-skulled, wooden-headed. [WordNet 1.5]

adj. 1. disinclined to work or exertion.
Syn. -- do-nothing(prenominal), faineant, indolent, lazy, otiose, shiftless, slothful, workshy, work-shy. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Without bones. “Boneless gums.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a small bone; especially one in the middle ear.
Syn. -- ossicle, ossiculum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. resembling bone. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. ground bones, used as a fertilizer or as a component in animal feed; -- it is high in phosphate content. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. 1. an embarrassing mistake.
Syn. -- blunder, blooper, bungle, foul-up, flub, botch, boo-boo, misdoing. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. one who bones food. [ PJC ]

n. (Bot.) A medicinal plant, the thoroughwort (Eupatorium perfoliatum). Its properties are diaphoretic and tonic. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who sets broken or dislocated bones; -- commonly applied to one, not a regular surgeon, who makes an occupation of setting bones. -- Bone"set*ting, n. [1913 Webster]

n. (Med.) Sciatica. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Bonito. Sir T. Herbert. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Med.) See Dengue. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The bone of the breast; the sternum. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Anat.) See Canon Bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ F. canon, fr. L. canon a rule. See canon. ] (Anat.) The shank bone, or great bone above the fetlock, in the fore and hind legs of the horse and allied animals, corresponding to the middle metacarpal or metatarsal bone of most mammals. See Horse. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ See Carbonado. ] To broil. [ Obs. ] “We had a calf's head carboned”. Pepys. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the arch of bone beneath the eye that forms the prominence of the cheek.
Syn. -- zygomatic bone, malar bone, jugal bone, os zygomaticum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Anat.) The clavicle, a bone linking the scapula and sternum. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

. The small pastern bone of the horse and allied animals. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. pl. A representation of two of the leg bones or arm bones of a skeleton, laid crosswise, often surmounted with a skull, and serving as a symbol of death. [ 1913 Webster ]

Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrious emblems of mortality. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

The shell or bone of cuttlefishes, used for various purposes, as for making polishing powder, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having dry bones, or bones without flesh. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Aitchbone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A substitute for whalebone, made from the quills of geese and turkeys. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. a bone of a fish. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. of or relating to Gabon or its inhabitants; as, Gabonese hills; Gabonese writers. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a native or inhabitant of Gabon. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ So named because the bones are green when boiled. ] (Zool.) (a) Any garfish (Belone or Tylosurus). (b) The European eelpout. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or like, the spine of a herring; especially, characterized by an arrangement of work in rows of parallel lines, which in the alternate rows slope in different directions. [ 1913 Webster ]

Herringbone stitch, a kind of cross-stitch in needlework, chiefly used in flannel. Simmonds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Either of two large flaring bones, each forming one half of the pelvis; made up of the ilium and ischium and pubis.
Syn. -- innominate bone. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. See Whirlbone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Far.) A bone near the middle of the buttock of a horse. Crabb. [ 1913 Webster ]