Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US, orig. milit.) to work hard, to study, to revise; also extended as bone down, bone in, bone through, etc.

1863		T. Winthrop Life in Open Air 148: We was about sick of putty-heads and sneaks that didn’t know enough or didn’t dare to make us stand round and bone in.
a.1870		Chipman Notes on BartIett 42: Bone, to apply one’s self closely. ‘To bone into it.’ [DA].
1878		H.O. Flipper Colored Cadet at West Point 50: ‘To bone.’ — To study.
1883		Century mag. (N.Y.) June 273: ‘I Suppose you’ll keep up your reading along with your law?’ ‘No [...] I’m going to bone right down to it.’ [DA].
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 181: I have known the General to ‘bone up,’ as his West Point phrase expressed it, on the smallest details of some question at issue.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 4: bone or bohn [Prob. from bone in allusion to the knuckle, cf. knuckle down. Perhaps derived from the name of the publisher Bohn.] 1. vi. To study diligently for a considerable space of time. 2. vt. Thoroughly to prepare a lesson, usually followed by prep. out or up.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 24: bone, v. To study diligently.
1900		Lincs. Echo 22 Nov. 2/4: In an article on college slang in the United States [...] ‘to bohn’ [...] is to study hard.
1902		Ade Breaking Into Society (1904) 86: So he tucked back his Cuffs and took a fresh Grip on the World of Trade, and boned like a Turk.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 253: He said he wanted them to stay in of Evenings and Bone hard.
1909		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues (rev. edn) 316/1: bone into it (or bone standing) = to apply oneself closely.
1911		E.B. Morris Junior 12: Violet. ‘If you will bone up during the summer, you can take a few courses’ .
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 148: After a certain point a man wanted to quit love-making and [...] bone up on his confounded Greek.
1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 275: bone — study hard.
1932		J.A. Shidler ‘More Stanford Expressions’ in ASVII:6 437: If a student gets a ‘smoke-up,’ a notice that he is failing, he starts to ‘bone,’ ‘dryball,’ ‘Phi-bete,’ ‘grind,’ ‘hit the books,’ ‘crack books,’ or ‘dust ’em off,’ which is to study.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 246: He was [...] always boning up on something, always trying to improve his mind.
1949		W. Pegler 29 Sept. [synd. col.] You will simply have to bone up on your lessons [W&F].
1951		AS XXVI 238: He boned his way through the difficulty.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 105: Tobey’s critics try to make fun of him by pointing out that he frequently gets his quotations mixed up [...] But that is unkind when you consider that he stayed up all night before, boning up on the Bible.
1959		R.L. Scott Tiger in the Sky 105: He’s reached that age when he should have been boning for general long ago, if he’s ever going to be one [HDAS].
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 5: Adela Cream writes mystery stories. Are you a fan of hers? No? Well, start boning up on them.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 156: ‘You been boning up.’ ‘He who is prepared, Tommy, is never surprised.’.
1985		J. Briskin Too Much Too Soon (1986) 383: Alexander’s already boning up.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 165: Not that kitty minded him boning up on his phoniness.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 67: I killed time boning up on Australiana.
1999		Guardian Rev. 12 Nov. 7: He had his own horror of speaking lines, due to a heavy stutter, which made him bone up on endless synonyms so he could switch words when stuck on stage.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 96: Pete’s math skills weren’t the strongest - it was why he needed that summer course to bone up.