Dictionary definition of “make (one’s) bones”

make (one’s) bones

v. to kill a person as requirement for membership in a criminal gang, especially if it is one’s first murder; to become a made man; (hence) to earn a reputation. Subjects: English, Crime & Prisons

Editorial Note: This term is associated with organized crime, especially the Mafia or the mob.

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Citations: 1969 Geoffrey Wolff New York Times (Mar. 8) “Persuasive Picture of Crime’s World” p. C4: Business, for Puzo’s characters, is almost everything. Vito Corleone “made his bones” (first killing) in cold blood for dollars. 1984 William Diehl Hooligans (June 1) p. 46: The story goes that Chevos killed his own brother to make his bones for Skeet. 1986 Timothy Harper Dallas Morning News (Texas) (Feb. 24) “Murdoch Challenging British Unions” p. 1D: Shah is a 41-year-old publisher of small provincial newspapers who made his bones after winning a bitter strike against the unions that tried to shut down his northern England operation when he brought in computers and offset presses three years ago. 1986 Laura Nicholson Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (Oct. 20) “The Race to Be 2nd—in Command Kavanagh—that’s Michael” p. 7: After he suggested that Cuomo “made his political bones in Queens,” which has been rocked with scandal, he said he should have known it would set off opponents. Cuomo aides complained it was an ethnic slur, since “made his bones” is an expression usually connected with the Mafia. 1988 Larry Margasak (AP) (Apr. 22) “FBI Agent Nearly Was Inducted Into Mafia”: 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. 1990 Patricia Hurtado Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (May 8) “Jury Considers Fama’s Fate As Judge Denies Defense Bid” p. 5: He was not only going to teach Gina [Feliciano] a lesson, Mr. Fama was going to make his bones that night…He was going to shoot someone. 2005 Doug Ireland Common Dreams (Jan. 12) “Mike Chertoff’s Dirty Little Secrets”: Chertoff—described as being “as cold-blooded as they come“— has a personal agenda that includes becoming U.S. Attorney General and, eventually, grabbing a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. But there’s a problem for Chertoff with conservative Republicans—he happens to be pro-choice. So, taking the DHS job is Chertoff’s way to “make his bones,” as they say in Jersey, and grab headlines as a hard-line persecutor of “the towel-heads” to please the right and neutralize his abortion stance.

Posted 13 Jan 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend