Word.ws English Dictionary

make old bones

make old bones verb: to live to an old age.

Verb

make old bones (third-person singular simple present makes old bones, present participle making old bones, simple past and past participle made old bones)

  1. (informal) To live to an old age.
    • With his heart condition, he'll never make old bones.
  2. (informal) To last a long time; to last or store well.
    • It is a nice fruity wine, but it doesn't make old bones.

Forms of make old bones

third-person singular presentmakes old bones
present participlemaking old bones
past participlemade old bones
pastmade old bones

Questions about make old bones

What does make old bones mean?
Make old bones means to live to an old age.
What part of speech is make old bones?
Make old bones is a verb.
What is the past tense of make old bones?
The past tense of make old bones is made old bones.

Words near make old bones in the dictionary

  1. make nothing of
  2. make of
  3. make off
  4. make off with
  5. make off without payment
  6. make old bones
  7. make one
  8. make one's bed
  9. make one's bed and lie in it
  10. make one's bones
  11. make one's bow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make old bones (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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