Meanings
plural chavel-bones · alternative chavel bone
- archaicobsoleteanatomyJawbone.
"With this chavel-bone I shall slay thee!"
2005, John Passfield, Water Lane: The Pilgrimage of Christopher Marlowe, page 1202 more examples
Cain kills Abel with a 'chavel-bone' (jaw bone), as according to apocryphal legend, and then hides his body under a pile of grass or hay.
1991, Colette Rausch, Leigh A. Payne, Medieval Drama, page 39It is the cry of Electra […] of Antigone for the father, for the brother struck down by the chavel-bone of Cain, death's storm-trooper, the man of ten-thousand names and ten-thousand faces […]
1992, Joan DeVee Dixon, George Rochberg: A Bio-bibliographic Guide to His Life and Works, page 325
Origin
- Middle Englishchavylbone
- Englishchavel-bone
From Middle English chavylbone, chavyl bon (also as Middle English chawylbon, chawlbone, chawle boon, jawe bone > Early Modern English chawe bone, chaw-bone, jaw-bone > English jawbone), equivalent to chavel + bone. Doublet of jawbone.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
chavel-bone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chavel-bone
“chavel-bone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chavel-bone. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chavel-bone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chavel-bone.
Source: chavel-bone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.