boned

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bone/bəʊn/

▶noun

• 1 any of the pieces of hard, whitish tissue making up the skeleton in vertebrates.

  ■ (one's bones) one's body.

• 2 the calcified material of which bones consist.

  ■ a thing made of a substance resembling bone, e.g. a strip of stiffening for an undergarment.

• 3 (in southern Africa) one of a set of carved dice or bones used by traditional healers in divination.

▶verb

• 1 remove the bones from (meat or fish) before cooking.

• 2 (bone up on) informal study (a subject) intensively.

– phrases
bone of contention a source of continuing disagreement.
close to the bone (of a remark) accurate to the point of causing discomfort.

■ (of a joke or story) near the limit of decency.

cut (or pare) something to the bone reduce something to the bare minimum.
have a bone to pick with someone informal have reason to disagree or be annoyed with someone.
in one's bones felt or believed deeply or instinctively.
make no bones about have no hesitation in stating or dealing with (something unpleasant).
off (or on) the bone (of meat or fish) having had the bones removed (or left in).
to the bone

• 1 (of a wound) so deep as to expose a bone.

• 2 (especially of cold) affecting a person in a penetrating way.

work one's fingers to the bone work very hard.

– derivatives
boned adjective,
boneless adjective.

– origin OE bān, of Gmc origin.