bootstrap
Americannoun
-
bootstraps
plural
-
a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.
-
a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something.
He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
adjective
-
relying entirely on one's efforts and resources.
The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.
-
self-generating or self-sustaining.
a bootstrap process.
verb (used with object)
-
bootstraps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bootstrapped,
past participle, past
-
bootstrapping
present participle
-
Computers. boot.
-
to help (oneself) without the aid of others.
She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.
idioms
noun
-
a leather or fabric loop on the back or side of a boot for pulling it on
-
by one's own efforts; unaided
-
(modifier) self-acting or self-sufficient, as an electronic amplifier that uses its output voltage to bias its input
-
-
Also: boot. a technique for loading the first few program instructions into a computer main store to enable the rest of the program to be introduced from an input device
-
( as modifier )
a bootstrap loader
-
-
commerce an offer to purchase a controlling interest in a company, esp with the intention of purchasing the remainder of the equity at a lower price
verb
-
to set up or achieve (something) using minimal resources
-
(foll by to) to attach (something) to a larger or more important thing
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
bootstrapsimple
-
bootstrapssimple
-
have bootstrappedperfect
-
has bootstrappedperfect
-
am bootstrappingprogressive
-
are bootstrappingprogressive
-
is bootstrappingprogressive
-
have been bootstrappingperfect progressive
-
has been bootstrappingperfect progressive
Past
-
bootstrappedsimple
-
had bootstrappedperfect
-
was bootstrappingprogressive
-
were bootstrappingprogressive
-
had been bootstrappingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bootstrap
Vocabulary lists containing bootstrap
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I figured we can absolutely bootstrap this with no corporate background, just hard work and the American dream, we’ll work 80-plus hours a week, we’ll make it happen,” Lieu said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
"The deep irony is that this bootstrap idea that we're pursuing now with modern tools and modern ideas is super retro. It's an old idea," Cheung explains.
From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026
SilverSneakers represents just a small slice of that — the costs are not broken out by MedPAC — but it’s significant enough that the bootstrap venture has turned into a big business.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2025
I think she is deeply wrong to let the tobacco company bootstrap these gas stations onto their suit.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2025
A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
“You should apply if you want to build yourself up while also building a startup society that bootstraps other startup societies,” its website said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
He had no experience in elected office, no notable history of activist organizing, no college degree, no significant success in the private sector, not even a record of pulling himself up by his proverbial bootstraps.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026
“You’ve got to pick up the bootstraps of your state until your state finally cares for all of its families,” Becerra said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2024
I try to instill that in my daughter, but her generation does not accept this concept of pulling up from my bootstraps.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2023
American autobiographical literature is filled with numerous accounts of remarkable men who pulled themselves to the summit by their bootstraps.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
It was founded by Smith, his brother and his father in 2002, and bootstrapped by them until 2012.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
But he’s bootstrapped himself into intelligence and with savvy networking and know-how, he becomes indispensable to the British, volunteering as a major to survey land and negotiate treaties with the Native tribes and French army.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
“We watched the pilot, and we were extremely impressed with how she’d bootstrapped this and essentially made it herself,” Ravi Nandan, the head of television at A24, said in an interview.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
But many of these smaller livestream channels are more bootstrapped operations, adherent to the same grind culture their content facilitates.
From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2023
The men bootstrapped the enterprise they now call EarthViews by raising $40,000 from a “friends and family” funding round to pay for equipment and travel.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2022
Their worries — AI systems deceiving their creators, bootstrapping their own code, or launching autonomous cyberattacks — show up in scientific literature.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
Just like Donald Trump, also the son of a bootstrapping developer, the Kushner boys talk of visiting building sites as children with their father, Charlie.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Putting aside the chutzpah of the bootstrapping, it’s not clear that the court is wrong.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026
Culturally, this typically gets framed as alpha-male, gym-rat bluster about bootstrapping.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2026
He had worked as a printer but was now bootstrapping his own print shop on a shoestring, and became entirely self-employed.
From How and When to Be Your Own Doctor by Steve Solomon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
