OE xxxi. 4 Conuersus sum in erumpna mea dum configitur spina : gecerrod uel gewend ic eom on gehrorenesse uel yrmðum minum þanne tobrocen bið hrygcban.
c1330 Sir Degare (Auch.) 450 in W. H. French & C. B. Hale (1930) 301 Some he brekez þe nekke anon, And of some þe rig-bon.
a1333 (BL Add.) (1929) 83 Rugbon [v.rr. rygbane; bac-bon; glossing Fr. l'escine].
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 383 (MED) Perdix..took a plate of iren and fyled it and made it i-toþed as a rugge boon of a fische, and þanne it was a sawe.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. v. lvii. 273 Þe bones of þe riggeboon kepen and sauen þe tendrenes of bodyes of beestis.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc (Ashm.) (1894) 226 A greet boch þat comeþ of þe passioun of þe riggeboon.
c1400 (?c1390) (1940) 1344 So ryde þay of by resoun bi þe rygge bonez, Euenden to þe haunche, þat henged alle samen.
1486 sig. fiiiv Than shall ye kyt the skyrtis..And after the Ragge boon cuttis euen also.
1495 (de Worde) v. xxxi. sig. i.iiij v/1 The joyntes of the rygbone [a1398 BL Add. 27944 riggebon] & of the brestebone.
a1525 (Trin. Dublin) (1896) 142 (MED) My fyngyr ys gretter than was my faders ryggebone.
1547 A. Borde i. f. Cxxii The backe bone or the rydgbone, the which may haue many diseases.
1581 R. Mulcaster xxvii. 104 It helpeth the ridgebone, by stowping, bending and coursing about.
1608 E. Topsell 118 If you see a man in the fit of the falling sicknesse, turne hum vppon his belly, and annoynt his backe from the Os sacrum to the ridge bone, and it will presently deliuer him from the fit.
1651 ‘A. B.’ tr. L. Lessius 85 Throughout the whole spine or ridge-bone of the back.
1765 J. L. Jackson 7 The rider..sitting with his body erect, his ridge bone answering to the ridge bone of the horse.
1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth viii, in 2nd Ser. I. 192 The saddle and the man were girthed on the ridge-bone of a..Flemish mare.
1861 419 The greatest danger of injury is likely to be incurred in removing the bones of birds of the Gallinaceous order.., all of which have running along either side of the keel or ridge bone, and only attached to the sternum in front, a long spear-like process.
1908 R. Lynd 106 At every jolt the ridge-bone of the animal [sc. a farm-horse] seemed to be cutting into me like a knife.
1954 27 Nov. 349 Patients who will benefit are those who have ridge bones damaged by disease of the gums and supporting tissues.
2003 (Nexis) 21 Sept. 19 c The piece of meat (with the ridge bone down the middle) will be about the size of the palm of your hand and maybe a half-inch thick.