make one's bones

English

make one's bones (third-person singular simple present makes one's bones, present participle making one's bones, simple past and past participle made one's bones)

To commit a murder in order to be respected in a criminal gang.
- 1976, Gloria Vitanza Basile, The Godson, page 232:
  Mario Cacciatore was fourteen when he made his bones.
(by extension) To establish one's bona fides; to establish status and respect.
- 2018 January 18, Eric Bradner, Chris Cillizza, “Republicans are running in 2018. Running from Trump”, in CNN‎^[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 15 August 2022:
  Politicians—good ones, at least—make their bones by knowing which way the wind is blowing.
- 2023 October 11, Jonathan Jones, “Frieze London art fair review – a graveyard of creativity for tasteless one percenters”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 October 2026:
  Wearing, Brown and Hume all made their bones in an era when contemporary art fought for attention and had to insist it mattered – when in Britain, at least, it seemed cutting edge to like it at all.

to establish respect