rickle o' banes

• rickle of banes
• rickle o' bones
• rickle of bones

rickle o' banes (plural rickles o' banes)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly Scotland) An emaciated person or animal.
   • 1876, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, Hamilton, Adams and Co, page 46:

     To behold him, mounted on his old shelty, was truly a laughable scene, the animal being always so lean — a perfect "rickle o' banes," […]

• bag of bones

rickle o' banes (plural rickles o' banes)

1. (idiomatic) rickle o' banes
   • 1896, Maggie Swan, For the Sake o' the Siller, Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, page 66:

     "Guid sake! lassie, what an airm ye hev, deed ye're jist a rickle o' banes a' the gither, they haena gien ye yer meat doon at Balhelvie; aye, I kent brawly what it would be."

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:rickle o' banes.