"make (one’s) bones" citation from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Catchword: make (one’s) bones

Filed under: English, Crime & Prisons

Part of speech: v.

The part of speech reflects that used in the full entry, and not necessarily the part of speech as it is used in the quotation below.

Quotation: They have reinstituted the requirement that before someone is made a soldier, he will have to ‘make his bones.’ That is, he will have to kill someone.

Article or Document Title:
“FBI Agent Nearly Was Inducted Into Mafia”

Author:
Larry Margasak

Article, document, publication, web site:
AP

Date of publication:
Apr. 22, 1988

This cite belongs to a full entry for make (one’s) bones.

Posted 13 Jan 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Recent Catchwords

simming n. (11/8)

nimbleton n. (11/6)

kitchen n. (11/6)

skuke n. (11/6)

parlor n. (11/6)

broccoli journalism n. (10/19)

strap hanging n. (10/8)

parclo n. (10/8)

Dipper n. (10/8)

jeggings n. (10/5)

dittoism n. (10/5)

crop n. (10/3)

sliming n. (10/3)

protestival n. (10/3)

excessing n. (10/3)

pencil top n. (10/3)

trophy jacket n. (10/3)

ball golf n. (10/3)

Scottish cringe n. (10/3)

bagel v. (9/30)

More catchwords...

Lexicographer's Rules

Now accepting nominations for the 2009 “word of the year” and the 2000-9 “word of the decade” (11/15)

How much underworld slang is still used from 80 years ago? (10/27)

Remembering William Safire (9/27)

The elephant in the language (8/12)

Updates will continue to be slow for Double-Tongued (7/19)

Call of nature (7/1)

Feedburner URLs that have huge accidental traffic (6/16)

I held Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary in my hands (6/9)

New: doors are open for Wordnik.com, a dictionary that aims to show all the words (6/8)

Boohoo, wah, & diddums: words of fake sympathy (6/3)

More blog entries...

Find A Word »

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y
Z	0-9
Search

New Comments

seasoned_geek commented on metric buttload (11/17)

gladius.primus commented on bakkie (11/17)

Ben Zimmer commented on riffed (8/18)

Gregory Teague commented on Taig (8/13)

Ben Zimmer commented on single shot (8/9)

christymarx commented on heinie (8/6)

amy_lu commented on mouth-breather (7/19)

hawkoffee commented on Mortarville (7/8)

Featherwood0973 commented on featherwood (6/30)

garyvh commented on rexing (6/28)

JR commented on jam track (6/21)

ElasticMind commented on innerpreneur (6/20)

GlennT commented on fourwall (5/31)

RevRayGreen commented on medible (5/25)

OKSoldiers commented on Mortarville (5/21)