hone

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hoʊn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /həʊn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊn

From Middle English hon (“whetstone”), from Old English hān, from Proto-Germanic *hainō (compare Dutch heen, Norwegian hein), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₃i- (“to sharpen”) (compare Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos, “cone”), Persian سان (sân, “whetstone”)).

hone (plural hones)

1. A sharpening stone composed of extra-fine grit used for removing the burr or curl from the blade of a razor or some other edge tool.
2. A machine tool used in the manufacture of precision bores.

• hone slate
• hone stone
• Turkey hone

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

1. (transitive) To sharpen with a hone; to whet.
2. (transitive) To use a hone to produce a precision bore.
3. (transitive) To refine or master (a skill).
   • 2023 August 23, David E Norris, “Joseph Locke: a railway injustice...”, in RAIL, number 990, page 56:

     He also honed the procedure known as cut and fill - whereby the spoil from railway cuttings was used to build up embankments.

   • 2011, “Revenge”, CaptainSparklez (lyrics), Doc Exx (music), performed by TryHardNinja, parody of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love:

     Huh? Training in your room under the torchlight / Hone that form to get you ready for the big fight

4. To make more acute, intense, or effective.

• hone in (on) (proscribed)

• grit
• sandpaper
• steel
• strop
• swarf

Cognate with Icelandic hnúður. Distantly related to knot.

hone (plural hones)

1. A kind of swelling in the cheek.

• honewort

French hogner (“to grumble”), which could be a cross of honnir (“to disgrace, shame”) and grogner (“to grunt”).

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

1. (UK, US, Southern US, dialect, intransitive) To grumble.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:

     Such tunges ſhuld be torne out by the harde rootes,
     Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.

2. (UK, US, Southern US, dialect) To pine, lament, or long.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

     He lies pitying himself, honing and moaning to himself

hone

1. Synonym of alas Used to express sorrow, or grief
   • 1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, Act 4, page 141

     Oh, hone! oh, hone! miserable wretch that I am! Do ye mak confession for me, Sir, and I'll say 't after you, as weel as I dow. Oh, hone! oh, hone!

• huunig (Sette Comuni)

From Middle High German honec, honic, from Old High German honag, honeg, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą. Cognate with German Honig, English honey.

hone m

1. (Luserna) honey

   süaz azpi dar hone ― as sweet as honey

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

hone

1. Rōmaji transcription of ほね

From Old English hān, from Proto-West Germanic *hainu, from Proto-Germanic *hainō (“whetstone”). The final vowel is generalised from the Old English inflected forms.

• hayn, hoone

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːn(ə)/

hone

1. hone (whetstone)

• English: hone
  • → Scots: hone, whoon

• “hōne, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

hone

1. Alternative form of hon

hone

1. Alternative form of hoane
   • 1867, OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITOR:

     F. brone, eelone, hone, lone, sthone, sthrone.

     E. brand, island, hand, land, stand, strand.

   • 1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX, page 131:

     Wathere proceeds to tell that the game was “was jist ing our hone”

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 14