throw one a bone. 1. Placate someone, a minor benevolence. Variations are: toss him/her a bone or give him/her a bone to chew on.

Just how minor the benevolence is a matter of context. In chiding President George W. Bush for his commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence, columnist Frank Rich characterized it as “throw[ing] a bone to the last grumpy old white guys watching Bill O’Reilly in a bunker.” Compared to the conservative ascendance that Karl Rove had predicted but which never arrived, this act was indeed a consolation prize at best.

2. Give someone something inconsequential to keep them occupied.

The condescension is clear. It is a metaphor that both casts the bone chewer not only as a non-person but also as likely to be grateful for the non-opportunity, since chewing on a bone is, by its nature, not terribly nutritious. Just as humans may give a dog a bone to keep it busy, tossing a bone is implicitly the giving of busy work; providing a labor of inconsequential nature. The distinction is clear when, in 2001, NBA star Jason Kidd praised center Todd MacCulloch who had joined him on the Nets: “He's got great hands and it makes the game so much easier when you can trust the big guy, not just throw him a bone but rely on him.”