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Synonyms

bone to pick

Cultural  

  1. Having a “bone to pick with someone” means having a grievance that needs to be talked out: “I have a bone to pick with you, Wallace; I heard how you criticized me at the meeting last night.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For Phillips though, there is a little bone to pick.

From BBC • Jan. 12, 2026

Last year, Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse had a bone to pick with banks, saying they had shut him and his industry out.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

On the chance that he does, I have a bone to pick with him – less cosmic, but something that speaks volumes about his probity and fitness for office.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2025

Dahlia Lithwick has a bone to pick with Ted Lasso’s critics.

From Slate • Jun. 5, 2023

She didn’t finish her stew, but she did fish out a tiny bone to pick her small white teeth with.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.