subs. phr. (sporting).—A heavy-bore rifle used for killing big game: cf. BONE-SHAKER.
1872. H. M. STANLEY, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), 63. African game require BONE-CRUSHERS; for any ordinary carbine possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not the disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an walls in ‘promising’ neighbourhoods stands for ‘BONE,’ a corruption of the French ‘bon,’ as a hint to succeeding vagebonds that they will find the happiest of hunting-grounds in the locality.
