to the bone

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

to the bone

1. (idiomatic) Completely, totally.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:to the full

   • 1982, George Thorogood and the Destroyers (lyrics and music), “Bad to the Bone”, in Bad to the Bone:

     She could tell right away / That I was bad to the bone

   • 1994, Green Day (lyrics and music), “Basket Case”, in Dookie:

     I am one of those melodramatic fools / Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it

   • 2004, George Michael (lyrics and music), “My Mother Had a Brother”, in Patience:

     I'm bad to the bone, I'm just a little torn / I'm makin' so much love

   • 2023 September 30, Hannah Murphy, quoting Shelley Zalis, “The wildest job in Silicon Valley”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 17:

     She's fun, they say. A friend, a force. “Good to the bone,” says Shelley Zalis, a founder of gender equality group The Female Quotient, who has been close to Yaccarino for years.

Derived terms

• work one's fingers to the bone

Translations

completely

• Italian: fino all'osso, fino al midollo