marrowbone
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]marrowbone (plural marrowbones)
- A bone containing edible marrow. [from 14th c.]
- 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 21:
- And thy skull and thy marrow-bones will I have away to Carcë, to my palace, to be a token unto all the world that I have been the bane of an hundredth great champion by my wrastling, and thou not least among them that I have slain in that exercise.
- (humorous, chiefly in the plural) The shins or knees, chiefly in references to kneeling. [from 16th c.]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 56, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- Upon this condescension, the culprit was called up stairs[sic], and made acquainted with the mitigation of his fate; upon which he said, he would down on his marrow-bones to his own master, but would be damn'd before he would ask pardon of e'er a Frenchman in Christendom.
- 1861, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Once a Week, volume 4, page 246:
- So the news of the split between the old and the young one caused plenty of conversation, you may be sure; and will Mr. Robert go down on his marrowbones? and what has he done? was all the question.
- 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- They would all to a man have gone down on their marrowbones to him.
Translations
[edit]bone with edible marrow
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