The present participle of debone; the process or action of removing bones from meat or fish.
From 'debone' plus the present participle suffix '-ing' (from Old English '-end' sound, eventually crystallized as '-ing'). This marks the ongoing or habitual action of bone removal.
The '-ing' suffix is ancient Germanic, not Latin, which is why it's so productive in modern English—it can attach to nearly any verb to create nouns ('the deboning process') or progressive tenses ('we are deboning').
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