sawbones
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sawbones
First recorded in 1830–40; saw 1 + bone + -s 3 ( def. )
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.
See Examples For:
“Put the sawbones like me out of business.”
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 20, 2012
Robert Morley and Alastair Sim bear small resemblance to the characters Shaw had in mind, but in company with John Robinson and Felix Aylmer they make a ludicrously Aristophanic chorus of sawbones.
From Time Magazine Archive
Answers the sawbones: "Not unless your seeing-eye dog goes lame."
From Time Magazine Archive
Small wonder that they have been dubbed "sawbones," or that they have always hated the unpleasant word.
From Time Magazine Archive
Arabas, drawn by bufferloes, was packed wi' sick, the dyin' was left in 'ospital with orderleys and a sawbones to keep 'em company.
From Love's Usuries by Creswicke, Louis
"Well, I done just like you told me to, and them cussed sawboneses won't let me go back no more," Shade reported to Pap Himes that evening.
From The Power and the Glory by Keller, Arthur Ignatius
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.
