close to the bone

English

Adjective

close to the bone (not comparable)

1. (of a comment, etc.) Penetrating and relatable, to the point of causing discomfort.

   Synonym: too close for comfort

   • 2015 August 6, Leslie Felperin, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl review – a scaldingly honest coming-of-age comedy”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     So it’s morally complex and sometimes uncomfortably close to the bone, but also lushly bawdy and funny, and packaged together with an astonishing degree of cinematic brio by first-time writer-director Marielle Heller.

   • 2021 August 6, Gaby Hinsliff, “Johnson’s muddle over Covid is a foretaste of his thinking on climate change.”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     First came the plague, then the flood, and now the fire. This has been a biblical summer, one where the doomsday warnings of climate scientists have felt increasingly close to the bone.

2. Destitute.

   Synonyms: poor, hard up; see also Thesaurus:impoverished

   • 1916, Albert Bigelow Paine, quoting Mark Twain, chapter 53, in The Boys’ Life of Mark Twain:

     We've lived close to the bone and saved every cent we could, and there's no undisputed claim now that we can't cash…