chavel-bone
nounEtymology From Middle English chavylbone, chavyl bon (also as Middle English chawylbon, chawlbone, chawle boon, jawe bone > Early Modern English chawe bone, chaw-bone, jaw-bone > English jawbone), equivalent to chavel + bone. Doublet of jawbone.
- Cain kills Abel with a 'chavel-bone' (jaw bone), as according to apocryphal legend, and then hides his body under a pile of grass or hay.1991, Colette Rausch, Leigh A. Payne, Medieval Drama, page 39:
- It is the cry of Electra […] of Antigone for the father, for the brother struck down by the chavel-bone of Cain, death's storm-trooper, the man of ten-thousand names and ten-thousand faces […]1992, Joan DeVee Dixon, George Rochberg: A Bio-bibliographic Guide to His Life and Works, page 325:
1 more example
- "With this chavel-bone I shall slay thee!"2005, John Passfield, Water Lane: The Pilgrimage of Christopher Marlowe, page 120:
- Related terms
- chawbone