in one's bones
- idiom
- Informal
:
en el fondo
- She felt it in her bones that they were hiding something from her.
Examples
-
I feel it in my bones.
-
- I don't know, just a feeling in my bones.
-
You feel it, as I do, in your bones.
-
- I can feel it in my bones.
-
I feel it in my bones, battle is near.
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I could feel it in my bones.
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But I felt it in my bones.
-
I feel it in my bones.
-
Well, I can feel it in my bones that he's alive.
-
I knew in my bones what you were aiming for, but I wouldn't believe it.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A natural ability to understand or do something
∞
3.1
A general feeling about a situation
159
4.7
A guess based on a feeling rather than facts
127
5.5
A quick feeling that something is true without thinking
17
7.6
A natural feeling that tells you things without using sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste
1
5.1
A quick sense that something is true without thinking
Antonyms
How Certain
Surface Forms
Morphology
in + one's + bones
The phrase maps a bodily image ('bones') onto an inner, deep conviction, so learners who know the words can access a related physical/visceral sense. However, the leap from a literal location in the body to the specific idiomatic sense of 'intuitive certainty without evidence' is metaphorical and not fully predictable without exposure, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
In one's bones comes from that same physical image: if you felt something in your bones, you trusted a strong inner sense, so today the phrase means sensing something clearly without any proof.