bolster
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɒlstə/
ipa: /ˈbəʊlstə/
ipa: [ˈbɒʊlstə]
ipa: /ˈboʊlstɚ/
Forms: form: bolsters
form: boulster
form: bowster
form: bouster
form: boster
Etymology: From Middle English bolster, bolstre, from Old English bolster (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *bolstr, from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz (“pillow, cushion”). Cognate with Scots bowster (“bolster”), West Frisian bulster (“mattress”), Dutch bolster (“husk, shell”), German Polster (“bolster, pillow, pad”), Swedish bolster (“soft mattress, bolster”), Icelandic bólstur (“pillow”).
Senses: examples: text: And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, / This way the coverlet, another way the sheets.
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: ["]Don't you know how [Joseph Mallord William] Turner spoils his pictures by introducing a man like a bolster in the foreground? Well, in actual life every landscape is spoilt by men of worse shapes still." / "You sound like a bolster with the stuffing out." They laughed.
ref: 1907 April, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter VII, in The Longest Journey, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I (Cambridge), page 88:
synonyms: Dutch wife
hotdog pillow
glosses: A large cushion or pillow, usually cylindrical in shape.
examples: text: This Arm ſhall be a Bolſter for thy Head, / I'll fetch clean Straw to make my Soldier's Bed; / There, while thou ſleep'ſt, my Apron o'er thee hold, / Or with it patch thy Tent againſt the Cold.
ref: [1715], [John] Gay, The What D’Ye Call It: A Tragi-comi-pastoral Farce, London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11:
glosses: A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
transport
vehicles
glosses: A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn.
synonyms: crosshead
pillow
glosses: A short, horizontal structural timber between a post and a beam for enlarging the bearing area of the post and/or reducing the span of the beam.
glosses: A beam in the middle of a railway truck, supporting the body of the car.
glosses: The perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
glosses: The part of a knife blade that abuts upon the end of the handle.
glosses: The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
examples: text: Its [the Ionic's column's] ancient capital is generally formed of two parallel bolsters
ref: 1826, Francesco Milizia, The Lives of Celebrated Architects Ancient and Modern:
topics: architecture
glosses: The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
examples: text: My health too has been better since you took away that Montero cap. I have left off cayenned eggs and such bolsters to discomfort.
ref: 1867, Charles Lamb, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Works: Including His Most Interesting Letters, page 225:
glosses: That which supports or promotes; a catalyst.
glosses: A wide-bladed cold chisel designed to split and shape bricks.
Derived terms: bolsterless
bolster wagon
bogie bolster wagon