bone-dry, bone-handled, bone-***

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warrener  #286003  Thu, 26 Oct 06 07:02 PM
I came across a lot of phases like "bone-***"
For example, a "bone-handled" knife; The air is "bone-dry"

What do they mean?
  
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Jrdavis  #286016  Thu, 26 Oct 06 07:37 PM
bone-handled just means the handle is made from a bone.
bone-dry means very dry. It is a metaphor, based on the idea of finding a dried old skeleton in the desert.

Also "bone-headed" means stupid.  I think the idea is that the head of a bone-headed person contains bones  only, no brains

  
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Native speaker of American English, somewhat ruined by academia. Now trying to learn the Canadian variety.
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