Word.ws English Dictionary

romancing the bone

romancing the bone is the euphemistic form of masturbation.

Meaning of masturbation

Noun

masturbation (usually uncountable, plural masturbations)

  1. (usually) Sexual stimulation of one's genitalia or other erotic regions, often to the point of orgasm.
    • Diogenes in sight of all, exercising his Masturbation, bred a longing desire in the bystanders, that in such sort they might fill their bellies by rubbing or clawing the same.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    onanism, self-abuse
  2. (broadly, usually) The stimulation of another person's genitals using the hands.
  3. (derogatory, figuratively, usually) A vain activity that serves only to provide self-indulgent satisfaction without any practical or external value.
    • That experimental film was nothing more than intellectual masturbation for the director.

Origin of romancing the bone

From a play on words with the title of the 1984 film Romancing the Stone.

Questions about romancing the bone

What is romancing the bone the euphemistic form of?
Romancing the bone is the euphemistic form of masturbation.

Words near romancing the bone in the dictionary

  1. romances
  2. romancey
  3. Romanche
  4. romancical
  5. romancing
  6. romancing the bone
  7. romancings
  8. romancist
  9. romancists
  10. romancy
  11. Romand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: romancing the bone (page history and authors); masturbation (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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Cite this entry: “romancing the bone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/romancing_the_bone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.