make one's bones

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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)

1. 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.

2. (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.com, retrieved 4 September 2018:

     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 The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     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.

• cut one's teeth