To attempt to appease or placate someone by giving them something trivial or of minor importance, or by doing some small favor for them. (A reference to giving an animal a bone or scrap from a bigger portion of food, this phrase is a variant of the more common "throw (someone) a bone.") My younger brother is always pleading for me to help his career, so I tossed him a bone and got him a gig in some bar at the edge of town.