bonelessness

bonelessness

English

Etymology

boneless +‎ -ness

Noun

bonelessness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being boneless.
   • 1889, Pan [pseudonym of Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh], Dinnerology: Our Experiments in Diet, Chicago, New York and San Francisco: Belford, Clarke & Co., Chapter 3, p. 41,

     Our “fish” course would include salmon steaks, cod rissoles, oysters and other finny-cal morsels, and we prided ourselves on their bonelessness.

   • 1907, Thomas Hayes, “Dances of the East” in The English Illustrated Magazine, Volume 36, p. 104,

     The dancer wears a long, soft drapery, which is never lifted to her ankles. Agility and apparent bonelessness are her characteristics.

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, Chapter 11,

     His face was as soft and round as a dumpling. There seemed to be no structure in it. no indication of a skull beneath the skin. ¶ This unpleasant effect might have argued an equally unpleasant temperament. Luckily this was not so. But it exemplified a parallel bonelessness of outlook.