breed in the bone

present singular third person breeds in the bone · participle present breeding in the bone · participle past bred in the bone · past bred in the bone

1. idiomaticusuallypersonal characteristicTo establish or ingrain firmly within someone's nature.

   Davies meticulously establishes the background, the breeding in the bone, of his hero's life.

   1985 December 8, “Books: Robertson Davies returns to a familiar, fulfilling venue”, in Chicago Tribune, retrieved 12 Jul 2011, page I33

   4 more examples

   "And for thy ill tongue, and worse practices, his lordship knows they are bred in the bone of thee."

   1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 30, in The Betrothed

   "My father was a born aristocrat. I think, in some preexistent state, he must have been in the higher circles of spirits, and brought all his old court pride along with him; for it was ingrain, bred in the bone, though he was originally of poor and not in any way of noble family."

   1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 19, in Uncle Tom's Cabin

   The distinctiveness of Bellocchio's approach lay in his taking mental affliction, in this case epilepsy, and figuring it as symbolic of the self-immolating rage and frustration that the dysfunctional family breeds in the bone.

   1998 May 29, Chris Darke, “Film: Famiglia feelings”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 12 Jul 2011

   One principle ought to be bred in the bone of any European after the carnage of the 20th century: that no act of state bears such ominous consequences as changing a border by force.

   2008 August 13, James Graff, “Russia: In Search Of Unity”, in Time