bootstrap
Americannoun
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bootstraps
plural
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a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.
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a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something.
He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
adjective
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relying entirely on one's efforts and resources.
The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.
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self-generating or self-sustaining.
a bootstrap process.
verb (used with object)
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bootstraps,
present (3rd person singular)
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bootstrapped,
past participle, past
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bootstrapping
present participle
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Computers. boot.
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to help (oneself) without the aid of others.
She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.
idioms
noun
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a leather or fabric loop on the back or side of a boot for pulling it on
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by one's own efforts; unaided
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(modifier) self-acting or self-sufficient, as an electronic amplifier that uses its output voltage to bias its input
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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
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( as modifier )
a bootstrap loader
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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
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to set up or achieve (something) using minimal resources
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(foll by to) to attach (something) to a larger or more important thing
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bootstrapsimple
-
bootstrapssimple
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have bootstrappedperfect
-
has bootstrappedperfect
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am bootstrappingprogressive
-
are bootstrappingprogressive
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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:
"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
In science-fiction scenarios of first contact with extraterrestrials, humans usually bootstrap a common language with mathematics, demonstrating that we know the digits of pi and so forth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 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
Those who pull themselves up by the bootstraps should be able to attain a life materially more comfortable than their parents’.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
But in the U.S., the ethos of grinding and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is ubiquitous, both in the country’s beginnings and our current environment of always-on technology and work hours.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
Talking about the center, Mabon quoted the adage: “You can’t pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you don’t have boots.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
We can’t just pull ourselves up by the bootstraps when we’ve lost everything.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2023
Teachers exhorted us to be like him, to lift ourselves from poverty by our bootstraps.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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
He bootstrapped that company and sold it for over $100 million in 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 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
“When we first started during the pandemic, we were entirely bootstrapped and still working other full-time jobs, while doing our best to keep up with the growth of Locale,” Clark said.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2022
Sonnenshine and the “Little House” writers walk a fine line between the harsher recent revelations concerning the ways Ingalls’ bootstrapping mythology in the books doesn’t square with history or reality.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
It’s a quintessential American story, of bootstrapping from the humblest of origins to the literal highest of heights.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
He’s been a managing editor at the bootstrapping indie outlet L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
The success of Leo’s empire has long depended upon compartmentalizing and bootstrapping.
From Slate ● Aug. 23, 2022
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.
