have a bone to pick
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
have a disagreement or complaint to discuss
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
có điểm không đồng ý hoặc khiếu nại để thảo luận
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: hold a bone to quarrel over
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I have a bone to pick with you.Tôi có 1 khúc xương để chọn với bạn
Tatoeba sentence #1625 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “have a bone to pick” mean?
have a disagreement or complaint to discuss Literally: hold a bone to quarrel over
Is “have a bone to pick” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.