bonern.
/ˈbəʊnə/, U.S. /ˈboʊnər/ΚΠ
1844 Charter House Play i. i. 7 How he'll catch it from that bully Steady, If, after prayers, the supper is not ready. Poor Scrub! what licks, what boners I foresee.
1872 Sat. Rev. 23 Nov. 660/2 The uninitiated may perhaps be gratified to learn that a ‘boner’ is a blow with the fist on the lowest vertebræ.
1878 H. C. Adams Wykehamica xxiii. 417 Boner, a smart rap on the spine.
1895 E. P. E. Wilmot & E. C. Streatfeild Charterhouse Old & New viii. 185 A ‘boner’ was a blow underneath the top part of the arm when twisted round.
2.
a. A person employed at an abattoir to cut meat from bones.
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1895 Cumberland Argus & Fruitgrowers' Advocate (Parramatta, New S. Wales) 22 June 4/5 About 40 boners were called out by the union.., leaving the carcases of 6000 sheep and 60 bullocks hanging.
1950 Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho) 6 Mar. 10/5 (advt.) Wanted: Experienced skinner and boner.
1992 Utne Reader Mar. 106/1 The [beef] cuts are tossed onto conveyer belts, each worked by 30 to 40 boners and trimmers who cut and box the final products.
2009 C. Neilan Abattoir Jack i. 9 I'm a boner and slicer... I have two very big, very sharp knives for separating flesh from bone.
b. A cow of moderate to poor quality or condition whose meat is typically used for low-grade beef products. Frequently attributive.
ΚΠ
1944 Walkabout 1 Oct. 11/1 The remaining fifty per cent. are merely ‘boners’—fit for boiling down into bovril and bone-dust.
1945 Canad. War Orders & Regulations VII. 130 Except in the case of the retail cuts of boner beef that may be lawfully sold.., selling prices of retailers..are established on a weekly basis.
1954 Chronicle (Adelaide) 8 July 22/7 (heading) ‘Boners’ bought for cannery.
2009 J. Gilfoyle Remember Cannon Hill iii. 17 Some were butchers' cattle, but mostly they were boner cows and export type cattle.
2013 Cattleman July 30/1 Categories [of cows at auction] are:..Boners (red meat yield of 80 to 85 percent, which produces some merchandisable cuts, with the rest used for ground beef) [etc.].
3. slang (chiefly North American). A mistake, a blunder; frequently (and in earliest use) Sport (originally and chiefly Baseball) a poor decision or tactical error, esp. one that causes one's team to lose a game. Frequently in to pull a boner: to make a mistake. Cf. bonehead n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > lack of truth, falsity > an error, mistake > [noun] > serious error, blunder
blunder1706
blunderbuss1726
floor1841
bull1846
howler1872
atrocity1878
break1884
bloomer1889
boner1912
bish1937
black1939
blue1941
cock-up1946
piss-up1950
screw-up1950
blob1952
the world > life > the body > sex organs > male sex organs > [noun] > penis > erect
Priapusc1487
Priap1561
Priapian1598
polec1600
Jack1604
maypole1607
stalk1609
rod1641
bone1654
stick1707
ramrod1768
horn1785
phallus1807
phallos1885
ithyphallus1889
boner1960
stiff1980
stonker1987
1912 Piqua (Ohio) Leader-Dispatch 12 June 7/2 I had pulled a prize boner, put myself in the accommodation train class of thinkers for the run that Leach scored, tied it up, and they beat us out.
1913 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Jrnl.-Gaz. 17 Dec. (Sporting page) Frank Navin, president of the Detroit club, says he didn't pull a ‘boner’ when he released Tesreau, but that he was unable to devote the time necessary to develop the giant.
1933 Passing Show 9 Dec. 9/3 Poor Carol... She made a boner to-night... Ronnie was simply livid.
1960 Spectator 7 Oct. 509 This Government has made about every boner possible.
1971 P. G. Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves xiii. 132 In signing on the dotted line with Florence I had made the boner of a lifetime.
1987 Dirt Bike June 63/4 Yamaha pulled the boner of the year with its VD forks..as the damping suffers from a valving mishap.
2002 T. Hauser Inside Ropes with Jesse Ventura v. 133 I'm going to save my apologies for when I really pull a boner. When I really say something wrong, when I really say something stupid.
4. slang (originally U.S.). An erection of the penis. Hence figurative: a strong attraction to or state of excitement about something specified.In quot. 1936 apparently with allusion to to pull a boner at sense 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > erection
elevation1543
erection1594
tentigoa1603
Jack1604
stand1608
surgation1688
cockstandc1890
hard-on1898
hard1927
boner1936
hard up1937
bone-on1969
morning-glory1985
1936 Psychoanalytic Rev. 23 72 In his dream he had a feeling that he was ‘pulling a boner’.
1962 C. Sigal Going Away 68 The little dog used to raise a boner every time it walked into a room where Rickie was present.
1991 Village Voice (N.Y.) 26 Feb. 36/3 I had all the access an English major with a boner for rock could hope for.
2003 R. Herring Talking Cock 51 In the caves of Lascaux..some randy troglodyte etched this clearly human figure, with an even clearer boner.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1844