Meanings
- uncountableThe state or quality of being boneless.
The dancer wears a long, soft drapery, which is never lifted to her ankles. Agility and apparent bonelessness are her characteristics.
1907, Thomas Hayes, “Dances of the East”, in The English Illustrated Magazine, volume 36, page 1042 more examples
1889, Pan [pseudonym of Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh], Dinnerology: Our Experiments in Diet, Chicago, New York and San Francisco: Belford, Clarke & Co., Chapter 3, p. 41, Our “fish” course would include salmon steaks, cod rissoles, oysters and other finny-cal morsels, and we prided ourselves on their bonelessness.
His face was as soft and round as a dumpling. There seemed to be no structure in it. no indication of a skull beneath the skin. ¶ This unpleasant effect might have argued an equally unpleasant temperament. Luckily this was not so. But it exemplified a parallel bonelessness of outlook.
1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 11, in Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode
Origin
Cite this entry
bonelessness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonelessness
“bonelessness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonelessness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bonelessness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonelessness.
Source: bonelessness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.