bone

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The dense, semirigid, porous, calcified connective tissue forming the major portion of the skeleton of most vertebrates. It consists of a dense organic matrix and an inorganic, mineral component.
2. n. Any of numerous anatomically distinct structures making up the skeleton of a vertebrate animal. There are more than 200 different bones in the human body.
3. n. A piece of bone.
4. n. The skeleton.
5. n. The body.
6. n. Mortal remains.
7. n. An animal structure or material, such as ivory, resembling bone.
8. n. Something made of bone or of material resembling bone, especially:
9. n. A piece of whalebone or similar material used as a corset stay.
10. n. Informal Dice.
11. n. The fundamental plan or design, as of the plot of a book.
12. n. Flat clappers made of bone or wood originally used by the end man in a minstrel show.
13. n. The end man in a minstrel show.
14. v. To remove the bones from.
15. v. To stiffen (a piece of clothing) with stays, as of whalebone.
16. bone up Informal To study intensely, usually at the last minute: boned up for the final exam.
17. idiom. bone of contention The subject of a dispute.
18. idiom. bone to pick Grounds for a complaint or dispute.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An animal tissue, consisting of branching cells lying in an intercellular substance made hard with earthy salts (consisting of calcium phosphate with small amounts of calcium carbonate and magnesium phosphate, etc.), and forming the substance of the skeleton or hard framework of the body of most vertebrate animals. When the earthy salts are removed, the remaining intercellular substance is of cartilaginous consistency, and is called ossein or bone-cartilage.
2. n. One of the parts which make up the skeleton or framework of vertebrate animals: as, a bone of the leg or head. Bones of cattle and other animals are extensively used in the arts in forming knife-handles, buttons, combs, etc., in making size, gelatin, lampblack, and animal charcoal, and for various other purposes. They are also extensively employed as a manure for dry soils, with the very best effect, being ground to dust, bruised, or broken into small fragments in mills, or dissolved in sulphuric acid. The great utility of bones as a manure arises from the phosphate of lime they supply to the soil.
3. n. plural The bones of the body taken collectively; the skeleton; hence, the bodily frame; a body.
4. n. plural Mortal remains: the skeleton or bony structure being the most permanent part of a dead body.
5. n. The internal shell of cuttlefishes of the family Sepiidœ, having the consistency of bone. Generally called cuttle-bone or cuttlefish-bone.
6. n. Something made of bone, or of a substance resembling bone, as ivory, whalebone, etc. plural Dice.
7. n. plural A person who performs with the bones.
8. n. Half of the stake in the game of bone-ace (which see).
9. n. In coal-mining, slaty or clayey portions or partings in coal.
10. n. See the adjectives.
11. n. See the adjectives.
12. n. See the adjectives.
13. To take out the bones of: as, to bone a turkey, a ham, etc.
14. To put whalebone into.
15. To manure with bone-dust.
16. To seize; make off with, as a dog makes off with a bone; get possession of; appropriate; steal.
17. To apply one's self diligently; set one's self determinedly to work: as, to bone down to hard work; he boned hard.
18. To take the level of (a piece of land, a wall, carpentry-work, and the like) by means of an instrument. See boning.
19. n. A Middle English form of boon.
20. A Middle English form of boon.
21. n. In card-playing, a chip of the smallest value.
22. n. A piece of horn or wood-fiber inserted in the sole of a wooden golf-club to prevent injury to the face of the club at the bottom.
23. n. The midrib of a leaf, especially that of a sugar-cane leaf or the large midrib of a palmleaf.
24. To ‘hold up’ with a demand or importunate request for something, as for a small loan: as, to bone one for a ‘fiver.’

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
2. n. countable Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.
3. n. A bone of a fish; a fishbone
4. n. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
5. n. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
6. n. US, informal A dollar.
7. n. slang An erect penis; a boner.
8. n. slang Dominoes or dice.
9. n. slang shortened form of trombone
10. adj. Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
11. v. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
12. v. To furnish with bone.
13. v. civil engineering To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
14. v. vulgar, slang, of a man To have sexual intercourse with.
15. v. Australia, dated (in Aboriginal culture) To perform "bone pointing", a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.
16. v. usually with "up" To study.
17. v. To polish boots to a shiny finish.
18. v. transitive, slang To apprehend, steal.
19. v. carpentry, masonry, surveying To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Anat.) The hard, calcified tissue of the skeleton of vertebrate animals, consisting very largely of calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and gelatine.
2. n. One of the pieces or parts of an animal skeleton; ; also, any fragment of bony substance. (pl.) The frame or skeleton of the body.
3. n. Anything made of bone, as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
4. n. Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music.
5. n. Dice.
6. n. Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset.
7. n. Fig.: The framework of anything.
8. v. To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery.
9. v. To put whalebone into.
10. v. To fertilize with bone.
11. v. Slang To steal; to take possession of.
12. v. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. study intensively, as before an exam
2. adj. consisting of or made up of bone
3. n. rigid connective tissue that makes up the skeleton of vertebrates
4. v. remove the bones from
5. n. the porous calcified substance from which bones are made
6. n. a shade of white the color of bleached bones