Word.ws English Dictionary

point the bone

point the bone verb: to place a curse on another person by pointing a bone at that person; to curse by performing a magic ritual.

Verb

point the bone (third-person singular simple present points the bone, present participle pointing the bone, simple past and past participle pointed the bone)

  1. (Australia, dated, intransitive) To place a curse on another person by pointing a bone at that person; to curse by performing a magic ritual.
    • It was proved on the trial that amongst the northern tribes a blackfellow who was known to have pointed the bone at another would be pursued for 500 miles, in order that revenge might be taken upon him for the crime.1879, George Taplin, The Native Tribes of South Australia, page xxx
    • Among the Arunta the two men, if they wish to punish a man who has stolen a woman, point the bone in the following manner. One man crouches down, huddling himself together with his forehead touching the ground in front of his knees, while the other man takes up the magic implement and standing...1930, Géza Róheim, Animism, Magic and the Divine King, Kessinger Publishing, published 2003, page 76
  2. (Australia, broadly) To blame someone.

Examples of point the bone in a sentence

  • Among the Arunta the two men, if they wish to punish a man who has stolen a woman, point the bone in the following manner.1930, Géza Róheim, Animism, Magic and the Divine King, Kessinger Publishing, published 2003, page 76:
  • If an enemy of Taipan came up to him, he would point the bone at him.2000, Gregory McNamee, editor, Taipan the Snake and the Blue-Tongued Lizard: Mungkjan Folktales: The Serpent′s Tale: Snakes in Folklore and...

Forms of point the bone

third-person singular presentpoints the bone
present participlepointing the bone
past participlepointed the bone
pastpointed the bone

Questions about point the bone

What does point the bone mean?
Point the bone means to place a curse on another person by pointing a bone at that person; to curse by performing a magic ritual.
How do you use point the bone in a sentence?
Among the Arunta the two men, if they wish to punish a man who has stolen a woman, point the bone in the following manner.
What part of speech is point the bone?
Point the bone is a verb.
What is the past tense of point the bone?
The past tense of point the bone is pointed the bone.

Words near point the bone in the dictionary

  1. point sources
  2. Point Sur
  3. point taken
  4. point target
  5. point targets
  6. point the bone
  7. point the finger at
  8. point the way
  9. point up
  10. Point Wilson
  11. Point Wolstoncroft

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: point the bone (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-point the bone.ogg.

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