Make one's bones

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American English idiom; to build respect

title: "Make one's bones" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-slang"] description: "American English idiom; to build respect" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_one's_bones" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American English idiom; to build respect ::

To "make one's bones" is an American English idiom meaning to take actions to establish achievement, status, or respect. It is an idiomatic equivalent of "establish[ing] one's bona fides".

Although the idiom appears to have originated in the United States criminal underworld, it has since migrated to more popular and less sinister usage; such as discussions of various professions and occupations including law enforcement personnel, the legal profession, and journalists.

In popular culture

The idiom was popularized in the 1969 book The Godfather and its 1972 movie adaptation, for instance when Sonny says "I 'made my bones' when I was nineteen, the last time the family had a war", and when Moe Greene says "I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!" The term was also used in The Sopranos several times. As in these examples, in organized-crime usage the phrase refers to establishing one's credibility by killing someone.

References

References

  1. (December 2002). "Women Police Officers at NOPD: On the Job".
  2. Rapkin, David P.. (2013). "Transition Scenarios: China and the United States in the Twenty-First Century". University of Chicago Press.
  3. (1989). "The Squad: The US Government's Secret Alliance with Organized Crime". SP Books.
  4. (2000). "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly". [[HarperCollins]].
  5. (2002). "Funnymen: A Novel". [[Simon & Schuster]].
  6. (2002). "The Grove Book of Hollywood". [[Grove Press]].
  7. (May 6, 2010). "The Vault: Hunter S. Thompson, Part III".
  8. (December 2002). "Women Police Officers at NOPD: On the Job".
  9. Shannon, Roy. (circa 2005). "The Internal Schism of the National Security Lawyer: Exploring the Fractal Geometry of Ethics, Privilege, and Loyalty". [[University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law]]. "Worse yet, the Senator himself is an attorney and former Massachusetts prosecutor who made his bones as a 'law and order' Democrat."
  10. (1996). "The Kittles Case audits Aftermath". [[Animal Law Review]].
  11. (Spring 2009). "Family Ties". [[Trinity College (Connecticut).
  12. [[Mario Puzo. Puzo, Mario]]. ''[[The Godfather (novel). The Godfather]]''. [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]], 1969.

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