bag of bones
6
7.0
- noun
- Offensive
:
saco de huesos
- You're all just a bag of bones in the end.
- just a bag of bones
- old bag of bones
- big bag of bones
It's alone, dried up, just like a bag of bones.
- It's alone, dried up, just like a bag of bones.
- So poor Tiffanus got older and older and older every year, decrepit, a bag of bones.
Examples
-
This bag of bones you're looking at used to be something special.
-
Get up, you big, lazy bag of bones.
Fiction book (1995) -
You're a bag of bones!
-
He's a bag of bones.
-
She was wasted, emaciated, hollow, a bag of bones.
Fiction book (2001) -
But I remembered the way she used to be, and I knew she was somewhere in that deadweight bag of bones, too stubborn to come back and fight.
Fiction book (1997) -
He looked like a bag of bones after his long illness.
-
The old dog was nothing but a bag of bones, barely able to stand.
-
After months of not eating, she had become a mere bag of bones.
Synonyms
9
5.6
Very thin with almost no fat or muscle
Antonyms
How Thin
- Offensive
6
7.0
4
2.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
bag + of + bone
The image 'a bag of bones' is directly constructed from the known words 'bag' and 'bones' — a container filled only with bones evokes an extremely thin, skeletal person, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily infer the meaning. Although metaphorical, the comparison is literalizable and parallels common cross-linguistic expressions (e.g., 'skin and bones'), making the phrase compositionally transparent.
Etymology
The idiom bag of bones comes from the picture of a bag full only of bones, which looks light, empty, and very thin. So people call someone or something a bag of bones to say they are 'very thin' or 'in very poor condition'.