Make one's bones

{{Short description|American English idiom; to build respect}}

{{wiktionary|make one's bones}}

To "make one's bones" is an American English idiom meaning to take actions to establish achievement, status, or respect.{{cite web|last1=Alice Abel|first1=Kemp|last2=Buczek|first2=Linda|title=Women Police Officers at NOPD: On the Job|url=http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/POWER_Kemp_Buczek.pdf|website=Tulane University|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813035733/http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/POWER_Kemp_Buczek.pdf|archivedate=August 13, 2012|page=8|date=December 2002|quote=Making your bones refers to establishing yourself as someone who could be counted on, someone who was reliable and trustworthy in all situations; in short, one of the guys.}} It is an idiomatic equivalent of "establish[ing] one's bona fides".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSI3AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |title=Transition Scenarios: China and the United States in the Twenty-First Century |first=David P. |last=Rapkin |author2=William R. Thompson |year=2013 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=4 |quote=To gain status, they have had to first 'make their bones,' which, in organized crime parlance, is to establish one's bona fides by killing someone.|isbn=9780226040509 }}

Although the idiom appears to have originated in the United States criminal underworld,{{cite book|last1=Milan|first1=Michael|title=The Squad: The US Government's Secret Alliance with Organized Crime|date=1989|publisher=SP Books|page=10|isbn=9780933503366 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzRysIeBNgYC&pg=PA10|quote=After the hit, I acted like a real tough guy about it. I'd made my bones.}} it has since migrated to more popular and less sinister usage;{{cite book|last1=Bourdain|first1=Anthony|authorlink1=Anthony Bourdain|title=Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|date=2000|publisher=HarperCollins|page=109|isbn=9780060934910 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zzb2HlIU1ZoC|quote=My life improved immediately. The other cooks began addressing me as an equal. ... I had made my bones.}}{{cite book|last1=Heller|first1=Ted|title=Funnymen: A Novel|date=2002|publisher=Simon & Schuster|page=158|isbn=9780743242363 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZuki8QqOLcC&pg=PA158|quote=I'm not a hard-hearted man, Teddy. I'm not made of stone. ... Floyd Lomax's band – that's how I made my bones in this business.}}{{cite book|last1=Silvester|first1=Christopher|title=The Grove Book of Hollywood|date=2002|publisher=Grove Press|page=579|isbn=9780802138781 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4ipcA9ka6YC|quote=... John Alonzo ... 'You got me ... I owe it to ya. Made my bones on Chinatown, didn't I?'}}{{cite web|last1=Hardy|first1=Greg|title=The Vault: Hunter S. Thompson, Part III|url=http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=vault/100506|website=ESPN|accessdate=May 23, 2018|date=May 6, 2010|quote=Since the 1960s, Hunter S. Thompson made his bones by writing about Fear and Loathing when it comes to politics, motorcycle gangs, guns and Las Vegas.}} such as discussions of various professions and occupations including law enforcement personnel,{{cite web|last1=Alice Abel|first1=Kemp|last2=Buczek|first2=Linda|title=Women Police Officers at NOPD: On the Job|url=http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/POWER_Kemp_Buczek.pdf|website=Tulane University|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813035733/http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/POWER_Kemp_Buczek.pdf|archivedate=August 13, 2012|page=8|date=December 2002|quote=Yes, I enjoyed the reputation of being fair, one of the highest compliments you can get. I made my bones on the street, too, so I could see all sides.}} the legal profession,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."{{cite journal|author1=Marquis, John (District Attorney, Clatsop County, Oregon)|title=The Kittles Case audits Aftermath|journal=Animal Law Review|date=1996|volume=2|quote=I have tried about a dozen other murder cases, starting in fact with the one I tried against Jerry Spence in 1985. That is how I have made my bones in the prosecution community, but I still get an enormous amount of flak.}} and journalists.{{cite journal|last1=Silk|first1=Mark|authorlink1=Mark Silk|title=Family Ties|journal=Religion in the News|date=Spring 2009|volume=12|issue=1|url=http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVOL12NO2/familyTies.htm|publisher=Trinity College|quote=Sharlet is a smart guy and a talented long-form journalist who made his bones looking into some of the odder corners of the American religious landscape.}}