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Bone (To)

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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 fingerspickers and stealers.” Putting the two together there can be no doubt that “to bonemeans to finger, that is, “to pick and steal.”

1


“You thought that I was buried deep

Quite decent-like and chary,

But from her grave in Mary-bone,

Theyʹve come and boned your Mary!”


 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Bon Vivant (French)
Bona Fide
Bona-roba
Bonduca = Boadicea
Bone
Bone in my Throat
Bone of Contention
Bones
Bone to pick (A)
Bone
Bone (To)
Bone-grubber (A)
Bone-lace
Bone-shaker (A)
Boned
Bones
Bonese
Bonfire
Bonhomie
Bonhomme (Un)
Boniface