bone-cage

noun

bone-cage

noun

1

Any rigid bony enclosure that protects or houses soft tissues, as the ribcage.

It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe: no enemy's clasp would crush him in it, no vicious armlock choke his life out.1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 47:

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