 |
Bone
Bred in the bone. A part of one's nature. “What's bred in the
bone will come out in the flesh.” A natural propensity cannot be
repressed. Naturam furcâ expellas, autem usque redibit.
Bone in my Throat
I have a bone in my throat. I cannot talk; I cannot answer your
question. I have a bone in my leg. An excuse given to children
for not moving from one's seat Similarly, “I have a bone in my arm,”
and must be excused using it for the present.
Bone of Contention
A disputed point; a point not yet settled. The metaphor is
taken from the proverb about “Two dogs fighting for a bone,” etc.
Bones
Deucalion, after the Deluge, was ordered to cast behind him the
bones of his mother, i.e. the stones of mother earth. Those thrown
by Deucalion became men, and those thrown by his wife, Pyrrha, became
women. Pindar suggests that laas, a stone, is a pun on laos,
the people. Both words, in the genitive case singular, are alike
laou. (Olynthics, ix. 66.)
Bone to pick
(A). A sop to Cerberus. A lucrative appointment given to a
troublesome opponent in order to silence him. Thus Chisholm Anstey was
sent to Hong-Kong as a judge to keep him away from the House of
Commons Of course the allusion is to throwing a bone to a dog barking
at you.
“In those days the usual plan to get rid to an oratorical patriot in
the House was to give him `a bone to pick.' ” —Anthony Collins.
I have a bone to pick with you. An unpleasant matter to settle with
you. At the marriage banquets of the Sicilian poor, the bride's father,
after the meal, used to hand the bridegroom a bone, saying, “Pick this
bone, for you have taken in hand a much harder task.”
Bone
(See Albadara; Luz; Os Sacrum.)
Bone
(To). To filch, as, I boned it. Shakespeare (2 Henry
VI., act i. 3) says, “By these ten bones, my lord ...” meaning his
ten fingers; and (Hamlet, iii. 2) calls the fingers “pickers and
stealers.” Putting the two together there can be no doubt that “to
bone” means to finger, that is, “to pick and steal.”
You thought that I was buried deep
Quite decent-like and chary,
But from her grave in Mary-bone,
They've come and boned your Mary!
Hood: Mary's Ghost.
Bone-grubber
(A). A person who grubs about dust-bins, gutters, etc.,
for refuse bones, which he sells to bone-grinders, and other dealers
in such stores.
Bone-lace
Lace woven on bobbins made of trotter-bones.
Bone-shaker
(A ). A four-wheel cab; also an old bicycle.
“A good swift hansom is worth twice as much as a `bone-shaker' any
day.” —Nineteenth Century, March, 1893, p. 473.
Boned
I boned him. Caught or seized him. (See above, Bone.)
Bones
The man who rattles or plays the bones in nigger troupes.
To make no bones about the matter, i.e.
no difficulty, no scruple. Dice are called “bones,” and the French,
flatter le dé (to mince the matter), is the opposite of our
expression. To make no bones of a thing is not to flatter, or “make
much of,” or humour the dice in order to show favour.
Napier's bones.
(See under Napier.) Without more bones. Without
further scruple or objection. (See above, “Make no bones,” etc.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Bone from Infoplease:
|
|
