boot up

Idioms  

1. Start a computer, as in When you've booted up, it's best not to turn off the computer until you're done for the day. The term, dating from the late 1970s, was a shortening of bootstrap, another computer idiom referring to using one set of instructions to load another set of instructions. Also see log in.

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Example Sentences

So every day after school, I’d sprint down to my family’s basement and boot up our enormous Gateway 2000 computer.

From Slate • Aug. 12, 2025

Haise and Lovell worked frantically to boot up the lunar module, Aquarius.

From BBC • Aug. 8, 2025

The region boasts the largest reserves of lithium in the world, which make up the lithium-ion batteries that boot up the electronic devices used by billions around the globe.

From National Geographic • Jan. 11, 2024

Students at the Greenville, N.C., university say when Polito, 67, would boot up his computer screen, there was always a Las Vegas-themed backdrop.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2023

It took an eternity for her laptop to boot up.

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson