Idiom
make no bones about
Meaning
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.
Examples
“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.”
Examples
simple
“He makes no bones about his dislike for spicy food.”
contextual
“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.”
complex
“She made no bones about her opposition to the new policy, stating clearly that it would harm the company in the long run.”
Origin
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.
Key words
Related idioms
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