[Ads-l] Phrases: continental to the bone, silked to the bone, laid to the natural bone

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sat Mar 21 19:40:56 UTC 2015


JL write:
> "To the bone":  HDAS 1932.

Great entry for "to the bone", JL. Apologies for not seeing it. A
subset of the examples listed are sartorial. The citations I listed
for "continental" and "silked" were earlier. So the new cites might
have some value. Interestingly, the HDAS cite for drunk was "stoned to
the bone".

[Begin excerpt]
to the bone [extracted fr. such phrs. as soaked or chilled to the
bone] Esp. Black E. to an extreme; thoroughly; "to the limit."

1932 C. McKay Gingertown 12: The men...were all chocolate-to-the-bone.

1955 Graziano & Barber Somebody Up There 321: You're beat to the bone
and only want to go to sleep.

1967 Lit Dict. 37: The cat was dressed in his glad rags...and conked
to the bone.

1971 Dahlskog Dict. 36: Laid to the bone, wearing one's best clothes;
all dressed up.

1974 TULIPQ (coll. B.K. Dumas): Drunk...stoned to the bone.

1982 G. Thorogood Bad to the Bone (song).

1988 U.S.News & W.R. (Jan. 18) 34: And he'd get silked down to the bone.

1992 Majors & Billson Cool Pose 81: He wearing the very popular silk
mohair wool worsted - continental to the bone.

1993 Oprah (ABC-TV): Men will lie to the bone!
[End excerpt]

WG wrote:
>. . .will you also be making similar lists for _break_ and _jump_?

Sounds like a worthwhile topic. I posted about the phrase "jump salty"
which Ben was examining but wasn't planning a comprehensive search.

Garson

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