"Scared to the bones"; song lyrics

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi everyone. I want to ask you about the meaning of the phrase “(to be) scared to the bones (of smth?)”. This is from the song Passenger by OneRepublic (click to listen on YouTube, 1:50)

The complete part of that verse (copied from a lyrics website):

Walk to the ledge, put out my hands
Scared to the bones of where I’d land
Trade in my fears, trade in my faults
They disappear behind your walls

Actually I’m not 100% sure that I hear it right, but I think the lyrics in that video are wrong, because it’s “get to the bones” there and I guess I hear “scared”, not “get”; and also the line “Up to the ledge” seems to me more like “Walk(ed) to the ledge” (I also found it on some lyrics website). Can you please tell me what’s correct, what you hear?
So back to the phrase in the title: what actually does it mean? Is it something like “really scared” or something more specific/different?
Do native speakers use this phrase often?
I also googled a little bit and found “scared to the bone”(singular). Which one is used more often? Would be strange if the first one was not correct (or common) because Ryan Tedder, the vocalist, is definitely a native speaker :slight_smile:

Thanks.

2

Scared to the bone(s) = extremely scared.

Also
Chilled to the bone(s) = extremely cold OR extremely scared (a more abstract use)
scared/chilled to the marrow. (Same meanings)

3

I’m so sorry, there was an error “bad gateway” on this forum, when I tried to send the message, which somehow ended up with posting the message three times :frowning:
Please delete this.

4

Thank you for the answer!

Could somebody please give me one more answer?
If you have time, please listen to that song for 12 seconds (here, without lyrics on screen, so you won’t be misled; you can start at 1:48) and tell me, what lyrics you hear. Because there are two different versions on the internet and I would like to know, which one is correct.

Please, if you have time, choose the correct lines (how you hear them in that song):

1.1 [u]Walk/u to the ledge, put out(up?) my hands or 1.2 Up to the ledge, put out(up?) my hands
2.1 Scared to the bones of where I’d land or 2.2 Get to the bones of where I’d land
3.1 Trade in my fears, trade in my faults or 3.2 Trade in my fears, trade in my thoughts
(They disappear behind your walls - the same in both version)

Probably one of those versions doesn’t make much sense, but they both are still present on many popular lyrics websites, so I would like to know, what native speakers think.

Thank you.

5

I hear “up to the ledge, put out my hands” and “scared to the bones” and “trade in my faults”