bred in the bone

1. Deeply and firmly rooted, ingrained, or established. Hyphenated if used directly before a noun. His bred-in-the-bone etiquette came as a result of his years of military training. In this part of the country, hospitality is simply bred in the bone. Good luck getting Phil to change—those bad habits of his sure seem to be bred in the bone.

2. Long-standing and habitual, especially of ideology or religion. Hyphenated if used directly before a noun. Most people vote according to their bred-in-the-bone political identification, rather than making individual assessments of different candidates. A lot of times, religious views are simply bred in the bone. With my parents and siblings, it felt like dysfunction was bred in the bone. I wanted to stop it from affecting future generations, that's why I started going to therapy.

breed in the bone

To deeply and firmly root, ingrain, or establish some trait or behavior, as if inherited genetically. His etiquette is the type of thing the military breeds in the bone. In this part of the country, hospitality is simply bred in the bone. My guess is that those bad habits of his were bred in the bone by prolonged bachelorhood.