throw a bone to
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Give someone a small advantage or concession to appease them
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
cho ai đó một lợi thế hoặc nhượng bộ nhỏ để làm họ hài lòng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: give a bone as food
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company threw a bone to the protesters by agreeing to meet with them
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 “throw a bone to” mean?
Give someone a small advantage or concession to appease them Literally: give a bone as food
Is “throw a bone to” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.