bone up

verb

boned up; boning up; bones up

intransitive verb

1

: to try to master necessary information quickly : cram

bone up for the exam

2

: to renew one's skill or refresh one's memory

boned up on the speech just before giving it

Synonyms

• study

Examples of bone up in a Sentence

I suggest you bone up a bit on torts before the next attempt at the bar exam.

Recent Examples on the Web

And those same fans — whether inspired by the clips that have circulated, or merely attempting to bone up on its deeper cuts before future live dates — are of course also streaming the album in droves. —Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 7 May 2025

For those wishing to bone up, here are some examples of what might appear on the exam: 1. —Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 5 May 2025

The anatomical basics will allow artists to restore long-extinct animals from the bones up, out to the tiny details of the living creature. —Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Mar. 2025

Cue outrage among many Bluesky users, particularly those who have boned up on EU data protection law, which does not look kindly on reusing people’s data without their permission. —Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 29 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1873, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for bone up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup