pare to the bone

: to trim off an outside, excess, or irregular part of

: to diminish or reduce by or as if by paring

: one of the hard parts of the skeleton of a vertebrate

: any of various hard animal substances or structures (such as baleen or ivory) akin to or resembling bone

: the hard largely calcareous connective tissue of which the adult skeleton of most vertebrates is chiefly composed

: to remove the bones from

: to provide (a garment) with stays

: to rub (something, such as a boot or a baseball bat) with something hard (such as a piece of bone) in order to smooth the surface

: extremely, very