osseousadj.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Christian Morals (1716) iii. 79 The osseous and solid part of Goodness, which gives Stability and Rectitude to all the rest.

1850 D. G. Mitchell Lorgnette II. 286 The skeleton of national habit will always be made up by the hard, osseous system of business.

1860 F. W. Farrar Ess. Origin Lang. vi. 130 The osseous fixtures in the flesh garment of Language.

1951 W. Faulkner in H. Brickell O. Henry Prize Stories of 1951 110 The crawling tedious list of calico and gunpowder, whisky and salt and snuff and denim pants and osseous candy drawn from Ratcliffe's shelves by her descendants and subjects and Negro slaves.

1696 Philos. Trans. 1695–7 (Royal Soc.) 19 186 Signior Scilla could never find but five [shark's teeth] upon the Sicilian Mountains, and those extreamly thin, and without any Osseous Matter within them.

1707 J. Drake Anthropol. Nova II. ii. viii. 465 The Coats of the Vessels..soonest become Osseous, as they are frequently found.

1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. vii. 15 An osseous Epidermis..commonly called the Shell.

1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present ii. ii. 66 Alas, how like an old osseous fragment.

1872 H. A. Nicholson Man. Palæontol. 308 As regards their true osseous system or endo-skeleton, Fishes vary very widely.

1912 Science 13 Sept. 340/2 The collection of osseous, archeologic and other specimens bearing on the subject of man's antiquity.

1967 Jrnl. Pediatrics 70 464/1 Another nonspecific variant which should be assessed in the short child is the level of osseous maturation, the bone age.

1988 Zool. Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 94 24 This tarsal sesamoid is an elongate, osseous element found at the proximal plantar surface of the tarsus.

1822 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 180 A very few large bones have been discovered..; most of them are broken into small angular fragments and chips, the greater part of which lay separately in the mud, whilst others were wholly or partially invested with stalactite; and some of the latter united with masses of still smaller fragments and cemented by the stalactite, so as to form an osseous breccia.

1876 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 6) xix. 383 Osseous breccia appears singularly connected with the coasts of the Mediterranean.

1894 Amer. Naturalist 28 162 The Rubble-drift and osseous breccia are but slightly developed in Syria.

1994 Lethaia 27 77/1 Its opaque whitish color (it is sometimes called ‘osseous amber’) makes it difficult to find fossil inclusions.

1828 J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. I. 374 The two great divisions [of Fishes], founded on the character of their bones, as being Cartilaginous or Osseous, are natural and well marked.

1842 W. T. Brande Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 683/2 Lophobranchiates, Lophobranchii an order of Osseous fishes.

1873 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ii. 59 In osseous Fishes the end of the tail is turned up.

1906 Science 24 Aug. 229/1 The complete disappearance of scales from the integument of some osseous fishes.

1876 T. W. Knox Underground 316 Such a democratic mixture, osseously speaking... The skull of a pious prelate rests upon the ribs of a desperate cutthroat.

1974 G. Rabassa tr. J. Lezama Lima Paradiso 48 The Chinaman..was moving osseously inside that big stone house.