Synonyms of bony

bony

adjective

ˈbō-nē 

variants also boney

1

as in thin

having a noticeably small amount of body fat

that bony old horse may have been deliberately starved

Synonyms & Similar Words

• thin
• slender
• skinny
• lean
• skeletal
• haggard
• gaunt
• slim
• lithe
• svelte
• pinched
• fatless
• trim
• spare
• angular
• scrawny
• wiry
• willowy
• slight
• spindly
• sinewy
• lanky
• stringy
• weedy
• rawboned
• lank
• scraggy
• reedy
• emaciated
• twiggy
• anorexic
• cadaverous
• wizened
• sylphlike
• wasted
• puny
• anorectic
• waspish
• meagre
• clean-limbed
• meager
• rangy
• anoretic
• spindling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• fat
• plump
• fleshy
• chubby
• gross
• corpulent
• obese
• overweight
• rotund
• thick
• bulky
• portly
• stocky
• tubby
• heavy
• chunky
• beefy
• stout
• weighty
• thickset
• burly
• heavyset
• brawny
• husky
• pudgy
• stubby
• dumpy
• squat
• flabby
• paunchy
• potbellied
• soft
• buxom
• round
• full
• roly-poly
• hippy
• zaftig
• zoftig

2

as in barren

producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation

bony hills from which sheepherders eked out a meager existence

Synonyms & Similar Words

• barren
• desolate
• poor
• bleak
• impoverished
• hardscrabble
• stark
• waste
• unfertile
• unproductive
• infertile
• desert
• dry
• dead
• lifeless
• sear
• inhospitable
• thirsty
• drained
• uncultivable
• untillable
• enfeebled
• debilitated
• arid
• exhausted
• droughty
• reduced
• depleted
• dried-up
• diminished
• sunbaked
• sere
• spent
• baked
• waterless
• dehydrated
• consumed
• rainless
• parched
• expended
• lessened
• used up
• bankrupted

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• rich
• fertile
• productive
• fruitful
• luxuriant
• lush
• green
• arable
• tillable
• verdant
• sylvan

Examples of bony in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Riders follow the instructions of Redbeard (given via onboard audio), which include finding and counting gems along the shore, looking out for bony opponents in Skeleton Valley and participating in a seaworthy singalong near the finale. —Dewayne Bevil, Orlando Sentinel, 11 Jan. 2023

Santiago Calatrava is best known for bridges that leap and budgets that soar, for vast and bony white-steel structures that evoke high-tech ruins of the future and cause fiscal ruin in the present. —Curbed, 6 Dec. 2022

Its bony head armor was more like that of Asian ankyloaurs than ones from North America. —Eric Betz, Discover Magazine, 19 July 2018

There are two types of fish, cartilaginous and bony. —Orlando Mayorquin, USA TODAY, 21 Oct. 2022