make no bones about
To do, indicate, or say something clearly and without hesitation, even if it may be unpleasant.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“He makes no bones about his dislike for spicy food.”
“The manager made no bones about the fact that we need to improve our sales numbers immediately.”
“My neighbor makes no bones about his desire to buy my old car, constantly asking me for a price every time we meet in the driveway.”
“She made no bones about her opposition to the new policy, stating clearly that it would harm the company in the long run.”
The phrase refers to the discovery of animal bones in one's food, a circumstance which generally occasioned a complaint to the cook. It is a development of the now-obsolete expression to find no bones in, which described the experience of encountering no hindrances or obstacles while eating. Finding a bone required one to stop and negotiate a difficulty; finding no bones allowed one to proceed without hesitation. In this sense, the idiom is a culinary relative of having a bone to pick, though it focuses on the absence of protest rather than the initiation of a grievance.
- 01
absence makes the heart grow fonder
One feels more love or affection for those one loves when parted from them.
- 02
bag of bones
A skinny, malnourished person or animal.
- 03
cannot make it
Cannot reach satisfactory or expected standards or do something competently; describes someone in a hopeless situation.
- 04
chew the meat and spit out the bones
To take in a great deal of information and selectively disregard some of it as invalid or inapplicable.
- 05
doctors make the worst patients
It is difficult to advise people on subjects that they are experts on.
- 06
enough to make a cat laugh
Very outlandish or outrageous.
- 07
enough to make the angels weep
Something so distressing that it causes one to lose hope and faith.
- 08
find no bones in
To experience no hindrances or obstacles; to do something without hesitation.
Last updated August 10, 2026