boning

noun

1. any of the separate parts of the hard connective tissue forming the skeleton of most full-grown vertebrate animals
2. this tissue, composed essentially of living cells embedded in hard calcium compounds
3. the skeleton
4. the body, living or dead
5. a bonelike substance or part, as whalebone
6. a thing made of bone or of bonelike material; specif.,
   1. a corset stay
   2. Informal dice
7. 1. flat sticks used as clappers in minstrel shows
   2. ☆ an end man in a minstrel show
8. bone white

Origin: ME bon < OE ban, bone, esp. of a limb, akin to Ger bein, a leg; only Gmc

transitive verb boned, boning

1. to remove the bones from
2. to put whalebone or other stiffening into
3. to fertilize with bone meal

intransitive verb