Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A humorous name applied to the bicycle before the introduction of rubber or pneumatic tires and other improvements.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative spelling of
boneshaker .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bone-shaker.
Examples
-
I think that P-far guy is competing in the bone-shaker version of the Tour, and has stopped so his team mechanic can replace a broken spoke.
BSNYC Friday Fun Quiz! BikeSnobNYC 2009
-
I was grateful, at last, for all those bone-shaker lessons my governess forced me to take.
The Vesuvius Club Mark Gatiss 2004
-
I was grateful, at last, for all those bone-shaker lessons my governess forced me to take.
The Vesuvius Club Mark Gatiss 2004
-
The gradient on her route had taken a sharp upward turn, and her elderly bone-shaker was no moun tain bike.
The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000
-
The gradient on her route had taken a sharp upward turn, and her elderly bone-shaker was no moun tain bike.
The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000
-
The company said they had stipulated a luxury touring coach with air-conditioning, but the bone-shaker was what had actually turned up.
Smokescreen Francis, Dick 1972
-
The company said they had stipulated a luxury touring coach with air-conditioning, but the bone-shaker was what had actually turned up.
Smokescreen Francis, Dick 1972
-
A few years ago this uncertainty was to be expected, for, though the makers will not whisper it in Gath, we are only just getting out of the bone-shaker age of automobiles.
-
This primitive bone-shaker, dark-red in color, the body sitting on huge leather springs, was drawn by four teams of mules in tandem, and before revolution spread over the land was customarily packed to the roof and high above it with excursionists to
Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras — Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond Harry Alverson Franck 1921
-
We got here middle day, yesterday -- came over the hills from the railway in a regular old bone-shaker of a coach.
The New Tenant 1906
chained_bear commented on the word bone-shaker
Slang for velocipede--which ought to indicate the advanced state of the technological art at the time the slang was coined. The thought of riding one kind of makes me want to cup my hands protectively over my crotch.
February 4, 2007
michaelt42 commented on the word bone-shaker
Seems equally applicable to a car that is so old that, despite the advantage of running on a smoothly surfaced pavement (not the case for early cyclists), it suffers so much from mechanical deterioration that it provides for its passengers the discomforts experienced by those pioneers.
May 9, 2012