From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbonebone1 /bəʊn $ boʊn/ ●●● S2 W2 noun 1 BODY[countable]HBHHBA one of the hard parts that together form the frame of a human, animal, or fish body The X-ray showed that the bone was broken in two places.hip/leg/cheek etc bone (=the bone in your hip etc) He broke his collar bone.big-boned/fine-boned/small-boned etc (=with big etc bones) She was tall and big-boned. Amelia had inherited her mother’s good bone structure.2 [uncountable] a substance made of bones the bone handle of his dagger3 → the bare bones4 → make no bones about (doing) something5 → bone of contention6 → be chilled/frozen to the bone7 → skin and bone8 → a bag of bones9 → feel/know something in your bones10 → have a bone to pick with somebody11 → close to the bone12 → cut something to the bone13 → on the bone14 → off the bone → dry as a bone at dry1(1), → work your fingers to the bone at work1(29)COLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + bone brokenThe doctor thought that I had a broken bone in my wrist.Luckily the bone wasn't broken.a thigh/hip/ankle etc boneHe was so thin that his hip bones were sticking out.human/animal bonesThey dug up a lot of human bones from under the castle.verbsbreak a boneI hope you haven't broken a bone.fracture a bone (=to break a bone so that a line appears on the surface)Sally fell, fracturing a bone in her leg.bone + NOUNbone structure (=the shape of your face, formed by the bones in it)She had beautiful eyes and fine bone structure.bone diseaseHe suffered from a rare bone disease.
Examples from the Corpus
bone• My son feels long and stringy now, all sinew, veins and bone.• The hip and femur bones were fused together and no movement was possible at that joint.• Fatigue seeps like ice water into bones and joints.• They flowed into the taut nostrils and along the prominent bones in the cheek.• Rib chops are identified by the slightly curved rib bone and the presence of the rib-eye muscle outside of the curve.• A gust of wet wind blew down the alleyway, chilling me to the bone.• They have looked upon the bones of the prehistoric dead and seen evidence of a Stone Age holocaust.• Did you give this bone to the dog?• Trampling Another source of modification to bone that begins soon after death is dispersal and breakage by trampling.• She broke two bones in her arm.bone structure• He says it can distort bone structure, even cause heart problems.• She had excellent bone structure, a well-shaped determined chin, a good figure and long legs.• As she tilted her face upwards to answer, her bone structure was thrown into transitory relief.• The neck itself is subject to a form of clinical exposure, its bone structure shifting and projecting.• Maxine has the right bone structure to be a model.• Paula Grey, a raven haired girl in her early thirties with strong bone structure, had just entered the office.• Under the microscope even the bone structure of these dinosaurs looks more like that of living mammals than cold-blooded reptiles.• His features were delicate; he had the bone structure of a professional model.• This is a young woman whose bone structure is not fully developed.bonebone2 verb [transitive] DFto remove the bones from fish or meat boned breast and thigh meat → bone up on something→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
bone• Scrape meat away from leg:, bone and remove bones.• boned salmon• I spent the time before it boning up on things like Troops Out.Origin bone1 Old English ban 