English · Idiom Historical

napier's bones

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

See NAPIER. One end is sure to be bone. It won't come up to expectation. "All is not gold that glitters.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

không đáp ứng được kỳ vọng

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Bones & skin Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “napier's bones” mean?

See NAPIER. One end is sure to be bone. It won't come up to expectation. "All is not gold that glitters.

Is “napier's bones” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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