4. pl.
Defn: Two or four pieces of bone held between the fingers and struck together to make a kind of music.
5. pl.
Defn: Dice.
6. Whalebone; hence, a piece of whalebone or of steel for a corset.
7. Fig.: The framework of anything. A bone of contention, a subject of contention or dispute. — A bone to pick, something to investigate, or to busy one's self about; a dispute to be settled (with some one). — Bone ash, the residue from calcined bones; — used for making cupels, and for cleaning jewelry. — Bone black (Chem.), the black, carbonaceous substance into which bones are converted by calcination in close vessels; — called also animal charcoal. It is used as a decolorizing material in filtering sirups, extracts, etc., and as a black pigment. See Ivory black, under Black. — Bone cave, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals, mingled sometimes with the works and bones of man. Am. Cyc. — Bone dust, ground or pulverized bones, used as a fertilizer. — Bone earth (Chem.), the earthy residuum after the calcination of bone, consisting chiefly of phosphate of calcium. — Bone lace, a lace made of linen thread, so called because woven with bobbins of bone. — Bone oil, an oil obtained by, heating bones (as in the manufacture of bone black), and remarkable for containing the nitrogenous bases, pyridine and quinoline, and their derivatives; — also called Dippel's oil. — Bone setter. Same as Bonesetter. See in the Vocabulary. — Bone shark (Zoöl.), the basking shark. — Bone spavin. See under Spavin. — Bone turquoise, fossil bone or tooth of a delicate blue color, sometimes used as an imitation of true turquoise. — Bone whale (Zoöl.), a right whale. — To be upon the bones of, to attack. [Obs.] — To make no bones, to make no scruple; not to hesitate. [Low] — To pick a bone with, to quarrel with, as dogs quarrel over a bone; to settle a disagreement. [Colloq.]
BONE
Bone, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Boned (; p. pr. & vb. n. Boning.]
1. To withdraw bones from the flesh of, as in cookery. "To bone a turkey." Soyer.
2. To put whalebone into; as, to bone stays. Ash.
3. To fertilize with bone.