A bag of bones
Meaning
A person or animal that is extremely thin, often to an unhealthy degree, with little flesh covering their skeletal frame.
Origin
It's a stark, visceral image, isn't it? 'A bag of bones' conjures up the raw, disturbing reality of extreme emaciation, reducing a living being to its most fragile components. This phrase isn't born from a forgotten ritual or a specific historical event; rather, it’s a natural evolution of language used to describe severe weight loss. Think of it as a verbal x-ray, stripping away flesh and muscle to reveal only the underlying framework. For centuries, across countless cultures, the sight of someone or something severely underweight has been a powerful, often tragic, indicator of illness, starvation, or deprivation, and this straightforward, haunting description became a common way to express that shocking visual. It's a phrase that hits you right in the gut, evoking both pity and alarm with its chilling simplicity.
Examples
- After weeks of illness, he was nothing but a bag of bones, barely able to stand.
- The stray cat looked like a bag of bones when we found it, clearly starving and desperately needing care.