noun General Slang

Dog And Bone

/ˌdɒɡ ən ˈbəʊn/ · noun · slang

Cockney for telephone — 'dog and bone' rhymes with phone, clipped to the 'dog'.

0

Definitions

1

Clipped to 'dog', a phone call or the act of phoning.

“Give us a bell on the dog later.”
by community
0
2

By extension, any chatter or gossip conducted down the line.

“He got it all over the dog and bone within the hour.”
by community
0
3

The telephone. 'Dog and bone' rhymes with 'phone', and is clipped to 'dog', dropping the rhyme.

“She's been on the dog and bone for an hour.”
by community
0

Dog And Bone In A Sentence

Get on the dog and bone and book us a table.
My nan lives on the dog and bone to her sister.
The dog's been ringing off the hook all morning.

Origin & Usage

Twentieth-century East End rhyming slang on 'phone', coined as the household telephone spread through working London; everyday-object rhymes like this belong to the living Cockney tradition first catalogued by Hotten in 1859.

Variants dog
Tags #cockney#rhyming#british#uk#technology

People Also Ask

What does dog and bone mean in Cockney?

It means the telephone. 'Bone' rhymes with 'phone', shortened to 'dog'.

Is dog and bone still used?

Yes, it's one of the most recognisable pieces of rhyming slang, still heard for the phone today.

Where did dog and bone come from?

From twentieth-century East End speech, as the telephone became common in ordinary homes.

Comments 0