bred-in-the-bone

adj

Etymology

From the past participle of breed in the bone.

Definitions

  1. Firmly established or instilled

    Firmly established or instilled; deep-seated.

    • They had the kind of bred-in-the-bone manners that were unobtrusively the same for one and all.
    • But few could match the bred-in-the-bone exceptionalism rooted deep in America's self-image.
  2. Inveterate or habitual

    Inveterate or habitual; long-standing.

    • Antrim, bred-in-the-bone Republican conservative, has a proud patriotic tradition.
    • The point of this political genealogy is not only that Lawrence Cannon was a bred-in-the-bone Liberal, […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bred-in-the-bone. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA