in the gristle
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.26 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep_phrase
Not yet hardened into bone or strengthened into sinew.
Example Sentences
- "Most cartilage is not merely premature bone; but there is a grain of truth to the old notion that newborn creatures' bodies are yet in the gristle, as some bones are still developing."
- "The country’s first prime minister, the hard-drinking political pragmatist Sir John A. Macdonald, was all too aware of the fragilities this entailed [the challenges of unifying a Canadian federal polity], stating in 1872 that Confederation “is only yet in the gristle, and it will require five years more before it hardens into bone.”"