Word.ws English Dictionary

throw a bone to

throw a bone to verb: to provide support or assistance to, especially in one particular way or to a limited extent; to make a concession to.

Verb

throw a bone to (third-person singular simple present throws a bone to, present participle throwing a bone to, simple past threw a bone to, past participle thrown a bone to)

  1. (idiomatic) To provide support or assistance to, especially in one particular way or to a limited extent; to make a concession to.
    • There was considerable uneasiness in the bosoms of others of the Directors. […] [T]hey knew that Lord Alfred had sold shares, and had received the profit. […] And if there was so much cause to fear Lord Alfred that it was necessary to throw him a bone, why should not they also make themselves...1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, chapter 22, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC
    • The union […] "regretted that the President thought it necessary to throw a bone to the anti-labor bloc" by saying the act would prevent strikes.1944 January 14, “ILWU Votes for FR Plan”, in Berkeley Daily Gazette, retrieved 11 Jul 2011, page 1

Forms of throw a bone to

third-person singular presentthrows a bone to
present participlethrowing a bone to
pastthrew a bone to
past participlethrown a bone to

Origin of throw a bone to

An allusion to the act of throwing a bone as food to a hungry dog.

Questions about throw a bone to

What does throw a bone to mean?
Throw a bone to means to provide support or assistance to, especially in one particular way or to a limited extent; to make a concession to.
What part of speech is throw a bone to?
Throw a bone to is a verb.
What is the past tense of throw a bone to?
The past tense of throw a bone to is threw a bone to.

Words near throw a bone to in the dictionary

  1. throuples
  2. throupling
  3. throuplings
  4. throve
  5. throw
  6. throw a bone to
  7. throw a curve
  8. throw a fit
  9. throw a kiss
  10. throw a mickey
  11. throw a monkey wrench in the works

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw a bone to (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-throw a bone to.ogg.

Cite this entry: “throw a bone to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throw_a_bone_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.