Chapter Bomba to Bonnet of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Bone to pick (A). A sop to Cerberus. A lucrative appointment given to a troublesome opponent in order to silence him. Thus Chisholm Anstey was sent to Hong-Kong as a judge to keep him away from the House of Commons Of course the allusion is to throwing a bone to a dog barking at you.

“In those days the usual plan to get rid to an oratorical patriot in the House was to give him `a bone to pick.' ”- Anthony Collins.

   I have a bone to pick with you. An unpleasant matter to settle with you. At the marriage banquets of the Sicilian poor, the bride's father, after the meal, used to hand the bridegroom a bone, saying, “Pick this bone, for you have taken in hand a much harder task.”

Bone (See Albadara; Luz; Os Sacrum .)

Bone (To). 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 fingers “pickers and stealers.” Putting the two together there can be no doubt that “to bone” means to finger, that is, “to pick and steal.”

“You thought that I was buried deep
Quite decent-like and chary,
But from her grave in Mary-bone,
They've come and boned your Mary!”
Hood: Mary's Ghost.

Bone-grubber (A ). A person who grubs about dust-bins, gutters, etc., for refuse bones, which he sells to bone-grinders, and other dealers in such stores.

Bone-lace Lace woven on bobbins made of trotter-bones.

Bone-shaker (A ). A four-wheel cab; also an old bicycle.

“A good swift hansom is worth twice as much as a `bone-shaker' any day.”- Nineteenth Century, March, 1893, p. 473.

Boned I boned him. Caught or seized him. (See above, Bone .)

Bones The man who rattles or plays the bones in nigger troupes.
   To make no bones about the matter, i.e. no difficulty, no scruple. Dice are called “bones,” and the French, flatter le dé (to mince the matter), is the opposite of our expression. To make no bones of a thing is not to flatter, or “make much of,” or humour the dice in order to show favour.
   Napier's bones. (See under Napier.)
   Without more bones. Without further scruple or objection. (See above, “Make no bones,” etc.)

Bonese (2 syl.). The inhabitants of Boni, one of the Celebes.

Bonfire Ignis ossium. The Athenæum shows that the word means a fire made of bones; one quotation runs thus, “In the worship of St. John, the people ... made three manner of fires: one was of clean bones and no wood, and that is called a bonefire; another of clean wood and no bones, and that is called a woodfire ... and the third is made of wood and bones, and is called `St. John's fire”' (Quatuor Sermones, 1499). Certainly bone (Scotch, bane) is the more ancient way of spelling the first syllable of the word; but some suggest that “bon-fire” is really “boon-fire.”

“In some parts of Lincolnshire ... they make fires in the public streets ... with bones of oxen, sheep, etc. ... heaped together ... hence came the origin of bonfires.”- Leland, 1552.

    Whatever the origin of the word, it has long been uséd to signify either a beacon fire, or a boon fire, i.e. a fire expressive of joy. We often find the word spelt “bane-fire,” where bane may mean “bone” or beacon. Welsh ban, lofty; allied to the Norwegian baun, a beacon or cresset.

Bonhomie' Kindness; good nature; free and easy manners; cordial benevolence. (French.)

“I never knew a more prepossessing man. His bonhomie was infectious.”- C. D. Warner: Little Journey, chap. vi.