Breakbone
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Breakbone fever. uncountable
"All felt that their safety was in his hands and that his careful watch and strict enforcement of the quarantine would result in our exemption from the scourge. He was obeyed implicitly, and for a time we escaped the fever, but the "breakbone" singled us out one by one, and several times alarming symptoms of the dreaded yellow fever appeared."
- 2 A chicken's wishbone. US, countable, dialectal
"breakbone A chicken's wishbone; also called the breaking bone or pulleybone."
- 1 Violent; rough and painful.
"Near-synonym: backbreaking"
Example
More examples"All felt that their safety was in his hands and that his careful watch and strict enforcement of the quarantine would result in our exemption from the scourge. He was obeyed implicitly, and for a time we escaped the fever, but the "breakbone" singled us out one by one, and several times alarming symptoms of the dreaded yellow fever appeared."
Etymology
From break + bone.
Related phrases
More for "breakbone"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.