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definitions

boot

1
[boot]
||
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR boot ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

verb (used with object)

verb (used without object)

Computers. to start a computer or program, or be started in this way (often followed by up): My laptop won't boot and shows a blank screen.

Idioms

    bet your boots, to be sure or certain: You can bet your boots that I'll be there!
    die with one's boots on,
    1. to die while actively engaged in one's work, profession, etc.
    2. to die fighting, especially in battle, or in some worthy cause.
    Also especially British, die in one's boots.
    get a boot, Informal. to derive keen enjoyment: I really got a boot out of his ridiculous stories.

Origin of boot

1
1275–1325; Middle English bote < Anglo-French, Old French; of uncertain origin

boot

2
[boot]

noun

Archaic. something given into the bargain.
Obsolete.
  1. advantage.
  2. remedy; relief; help.

verb (used with or without object)

Archaic. to be of profit, advantage, or avail (to): It boots thee not to complain.

Origin of boot

2
before 1000; Middle English bote, Old English bōt advantage; cognate with Dutch boete, German Busse, Old Norse bōt, Gothic bota; see bet1, better1

boot

3
[boot]

noun Archaic.

booty; spoil; plunder.

Origin of boot

3
1585–95; special use of boot2 by association with booty1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for boot

footwear, knock, shove, eject, expel, bounce, evict, reset, reboot, oxford, brogan, galoshes, waders, cut, fire, dismiss, terminate, chuck, sack

Examples from the Web for boot

Contemporary Examples of boot

Historical Examples of boot

  • I'll trade this chestnut—and he's a fine traveler—with a good price to boot.

  • But this time he saw only the foot of the woman clad in a man's boot.

  • So saying, he thrust his boot into the snow, intending to kick it over the girl.

    Rico and Wiseli

    Johanna Spyri

  • "It wasn't anything," said Grant shortly, tugging at a boot.

    Good Indian

    B. M. Bower

  • As well try to mend a spider's web when you have put your boot through it.

British Dictionary definitions for boot

boot

1

noun

a strong outer covering for the foot; shoe that extends above the ankle, often to the kneeSee also chukka boot, top boot, Wellington boots, surgical boot
an enclosed compartment of a car for holding luggage, etc, usually at the rearUS and Canadian name: trunk
a protective covering over a mechanical device, such as a rubber sheath protecting a coupling joining two shafts
US and Canadian a rubber patch used to repair a puncture in a tyre
an instrument of torture used to crush the foot and lower leg
a protective covering for the lower leg of a horse
a kickhe gave the door a boot
British slang an ugly person (esp in the phrase old boot)
US slang a navy or marine recruit, esp one in training
computing short for bootstrap (def. 4a)
bet one's boots to be certainyou can bet your boots he'll come
See boots and all
die with one's boots on
  1. to die while still active
  2. to die in battle
lick the boots of to be servile, obsequious, or flattering towards
put the boot in slang
  1. to kick a person, esp when he or she is already down
  2. to harass someone or aggravate a problem
  3. to finish off (something) with unnecessary brutality
the boot slang dismissal from employment; the sack
the boot is on the other foot or the boot is on the other leg the situation is or has now reversed
too big for one's boots self-important or conceited

verb

(tr) (esp in football) to kick
(tr) to equip with boots
(tr) informal
  1. (often foll by out)to eject forcibly
  2. to dismiss from employment
Also: boot up to start up the operating system of (a computer) or (of a computer) to begin operating
See also boots

Word Origin for boot

C14 bote, from Old French, of uncertain origin

boot

2

verb (usually impersonal)

archaic to be of advantage or use to (a person)what boots it to complain?

noun

obsolete an advantage
dialect something given in addition, esp to equalize an exchangea ten pound boot to settle the bargain
to boot as well; in additionit's cold and musty, and damp to boot

Word Origin for boot

Old English bōt compensation; related to Old Norse bōt remedy, Gothic bōta, Old High German buoza improvement
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for boot
n.1

footwear, early 14c., from Old French bote "boot" (12c.), with corresponding words in Provençal and Spanish, of unknown origin, perhaps from a Germanic source. Originally for riding boots only. An old Dorsetshire word for "half-boots" was skilty-boots [Halliwell, Wright].

n.2

"profit, use," Old English bot "help, relief, advantage; atonement," literally "a making better," from Proto-Germanic *boto (see better (adj.)). Cf. German Buße "penance, atonement," Gothic botha "advantage." Now mostly in phrase to boot (Old English to bote).

v.2

"start up a computer," 1975, from bootstrap (v.), a 1958 derived verb from bootstrap (n.) in the computer sense.

v.1

"to kick," 1877, American English, from boot (n.1). Generalized sense of "eject, kick out" is from 1880. Related: Booted; booting.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with boot

boot

In addition to the idioms beginning with boot

  • boot out
  • boot up

also see:

  • die with one's boots on
  • get the ax (boot)
  • kick (boot) out
  • lick someone's boots
  • pull oneself up (by the bootstraps)
  • quake in one's boots
  • to boot
  • too big for one's breeches (boots)
  • you can bet your ass (boots)

Also see undershoe.

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