Chavel-bone

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Jawbone. archaic, obsolete

    "Cain kills Abel with a 'chavel-bone' (jaw bone), as according to apocryphal legend, and then hides his body under a pile of grass or hay."

Example

More examples

"Cain kills Abel with a 'chavel-bone' (jaw bone), as according to apocryphal legend, and then hides his body under a pile of grass or hay."

Etymology

From Middle English chavylbone, chavyl bon (also as Middle English chawylbon, chawlbone, chawle boon, jawe bone > Early Modern English chawe bone, chaw-bone, jaw-bone > English jawbone), equivalent to chavel + bone. Doublet of jawbone.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.