Meanings
plural telling bones
- humorouspreceded by definite articleThe telephone.
When we land I'll give you a tinkle on the telling bone.
1998, The Spectator, London4 more examples
“Oh great magician! Conjure more voices with thy telling bone.”
1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 111His eyes widened. The box contained the Divine Egg! The strange sorcerer who was muttering into the telling-bone had found lots of them.
1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 134Lately, Fergus has been even more insufferable: he's in love, a piece of intelligence I winkled out of the elder curmudgeon, his grandfather, the Laird of Gunning, on the telling bone last night.
1985 May 12, The Canberra Times, page 22, column 1She's visiting her sister in Launceston and I spoke to her on the telling bone last night.
2021, John Martin, Different Stripes: The first six quirky novels of the Windy Mountain series, John Martin
Origin
A Hobson-Jobson based on interpreting telephone as telling + bone; coined by British screenwriter Richard Carpenter for the TV series Catweazle.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
telling bone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/telling%20bone
“telling bone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/telling%20bone. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “telling bone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/telling%20bone.
Source: telling bone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.