throw a bone to

present singular third person throws a bone to · participle present throwing a bone to · past threw a bone to · participle past thrown a bone to

1. idiomaticTo provide support or assistance to, especially in one particular way or to a limited extent; to make a concession to.

   Throwing a bone to the banks, it will allow a 4% increase in overseas loans next year.

   1965 December 10, “U.S. Business: New Dam for the Dollar Drain”, in Time, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2012

   5 more examples

   There was considerable uneasiness in the bosoms of others of the Directors. […] [T]hey knew that Lord Alfred had sold shares, and had received the profit. […] And if there was so much cause to fear Lord Alfred that it was necessary to throw him a bone, why should not they also make themselves feared?

   1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, chapter 22, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC

   The union […] "regretted that the President thought it necessary to throw a bone to the anti-labor bloc" by saying the act would prevent strikes.

   1944 January 14, “ILWU Votes for FR Plan”, in Berkeley Daily Gazette, retrieved 11 Jul 2011, page 1

   The Dallas Cowboys yesterday gave a starting job to Alexander Wright, in effect throwing him a bone.

   1991 June 18, “Cowboys reward Wright with early starting position”, in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, retrieved 11 Jul 2011, page S1

   Can you remind me what I pay you people for? Honestly, throw me a bone here. What do we have?

   1997, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, spoken by Dr. Evil (Mike Myers)

   And he did it on the day the Senate threw a bone to President Bush's evangelical base by voting on a Constitutional amendment declaring that only a union of a man and a woman constitutes marriage.

   2006 June 16, Joseph Berger, “Acknowledging the Gay Part of Gay Marriage”, in The New York Times, →ISSN