What is the meaning of "all zero at the bone"? I can't make it out
From The Shining, by Stephen King:
Jack turned back, all zero at the bone.
What is the meaning of this expression?
Solution 1:
Zero at the bone seems to be an idiomatic expression off Emily Dickinson's poem:
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.
The implication seemingly being a reference Zero (O° F – cold!) to the bone. Literally, a chilling fear!
It's informal and not a set idiom as such.
See also:
"Zero" suggests cold and also nothingness. That the feeling penetrates to "the bone" suggests how deeply felt, how intense the emotion is. When you put all these details together, does the response sound like fear? (Melani, Brooklyn College)
and
… there will be a fearful constriction of chest and lungs, and bone marrow temperature will plummet. (Wood, humanities360)
Solution 2:
It's from Snake by Emily Dickinson,
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.
It's an allusion to a basic fear (originally of serpents), it is a feeling in your bones (or perhaps soul).
Solution 3:
Seems to mean "chilled to the bone" (not just physically).
"Wanted to meet you, but not so much by accident that you'd be suspicious."
I went zero to the bone.
The first line is spoken by the human guide of an alien visiting earth; the second is the response of the person he addresses. From Rebecca Ore's story Alien Bootlegger, collected in Gardner Dozois' "Year's Best Science Fiction, 11th Annual Collection."