hone

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hoʊn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /həʊn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊn

From Middle English hon (“whetstone”), from Old English hān, from Proto-Germanic *hainō (compare Dutch heen, Norwegian hein), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₃i- (“to sharpen”) (compare Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos, “cone”), Persian سان‎ (sân, “whetstone”)).

hone (plural hones)

1. A sharpening stone composed of extra-fine grit used for removing the burr or curl from the blade of a razor or some other edge tool.
2. A machine tool used in the manufacture of precision bores.

• hone slate
• hone stone
• Turkey hone

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

1. To sharpen with a hone; to whet.
2. To use a hone to produce a precision bore.
3. To refine or master (a skill).
4. To make more acute, intense, or effective.

• hone in (on) (proscribed)

• grit
• sandpaper
• steel
• strop
• swarf

Cognate with Icelandic hnúður. Distantly related to knot.

hone (plural hones)

1. A kind of swelling in the cheek.

• honewort

French hogner (“to grumble”), which could be a cross of honnir (“to disgrace, shame”) and grogner (“to grunt”).

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

1. (UK, US, Southern US, dialect) To grumble.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:

     Such tunges ſhuld be torne out by the harde rootes,
     Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.

2. (UK, US, Southern US, dialect) To pine, lament, or long.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 559961973:

     He lies pitying himself, honing and moaning to himself

hone

1. Synonym of alas Used to express sorrow, or grief
   • 1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, Act 4, page 141

     Oh, hone! oh, hone! miserable wretch that I am! Do ye mak confession for me, Sir, and I'll say 't after you, as weel as I dow. Oh, hone! oh, hone!

• huunig (Sette Comuni)

From Middle High German honec, honic, from Old High German honag, honeg, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą. Cognate with German Honig, English honey.

hone m

1. (Luserna) honey

   süaz azpi dar hone ― as sweet as honey

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

hone

1. Rōmaji transcription of ほね

From Old English hān, from Proto-Germanic *hainō (“whetstone”).

hone

1. hone (whetstone)

• hayn, hoone

• English: hone
  • → Scots: hone, whoon
• Scots: hone

• “hōne, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Probably of Celtic origin; see Old Irish oidid (“to lend”). Compare also Old Irish úan, ón (“loan, lending”) (Irish uain (“loan, time, leisure”)), Scottish Gaelic on, oin (“loan, laziness”).

hone (uncountable)

1. (Northern, North Midland) delay, hesitation

• one, hoyne, hune

• honen

• English: hone
• Scots: hune

• “họ̄ne, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

hone

1. Alternative form of hoane
   • 1867, OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITOR:

     F. brone, eelone, hone, lone, sthone, sthrone.

     E. brand, island, hand, land, stand, strand.

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 14