bolt upright


Precisely perpendicular, erect in carriage, as in She sat bolt upright in her pew. This expression was used in slightly different form by Chaucer in the late 1300s: “She was ... long as a mast and upright as a bolt” (The Miller's Tale).

Words Nearby bolt upright

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use bolt upright in a sentence

  • Thurstane, sitting bolt upright in his saddle, stared straight before him with a grim frown, meanwhile thinking of Clara.

    Overland | John William De Forest
  • There was, also, the creaking of a bed in another room, and a sound as of some one sitting bolt upright.

    The Rival Campers Afloat | Ruel Perley Smith