bolt
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɒlt/
ipa: /bəʊlt/
ipa: [bɔʊɫt]
ipa: /boʊlt/
rhymes: -əʊlt
rhymes: -ɒlt
Forms: form: bolts
form: bolting
form: bolted
form: bolted
Etymology: From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti.
Senses: examples: text: Bolt the vice to the bench.
glosses: To connect or assemble pieces using a bolt.
examples: text: Most languages are *not* based on C++. C++ is a complicated mess. It's C with object oriented features bolted on as an afterthought and no-one in their right mind would want to base another language on it.
ref: 2000 September 14, Brennan Young, “to all of you pro programmers out there.”, in macromedia.flash (Usenet):
text: Going through the motions with an empty smile bolted on my face
ref: 2013, Days N' Daze, “Call in the Coroner”, in Rogue Taxidermy:
glosses: To affix in a crude or unnatural manner.
examples: text: Bolt the door.
text: If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Advocate”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 122:
glosses: To secure a door by locking or barring it.
examples: text: Seeing the snake, the horse bolted.
text: The actor forgot his line and bolted from the stage.
text: This Pucke ſeems but a dreaming dolt, / Still vvalking like a ragged Colt, / And oft out of a buſh doth bolt, / Of purpoſe to deceiue vs, / And leading vs makes vs to ſtray.
ref: 1627, Michaell [i.e., Michael] Drayton, “The Moone Calfe”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for William Lee, […], →OCLC, page 178:
text: Bradly was embarrassed, detected in the character of a snooper. But he had to come on, short of bolting back in his tracks.
ref: 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 87:
glosses: To flee, to depart, to accelerate away suddenly.
glosses: To escape.
examples: text: to bolt a rabbit
glosses: To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge (an animal being hunted).
examples: text: His cloudleſs thunder bolted on thir heads.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 98:
glosses: To strike or fall suddenly like a bolt.
examples: text: Lettuce and spinach will bolt as the weather warms up.
text: When an onion bolts and forms a flower stalk, the stem grows right up through the neck, forming a tough, fibrous tube that pierces the center of the bulb. The plant channels all its energy into this flower stalk, so no more fleshy […]
ref: 1982, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Diane E. Bilderback, Garden Secrets: A Guide to Understanding how Your Garden Grows and how You Can Help it Grow Even Better, →ISBN:
text: To be honest, this hasn't been my Garden of Eden year. […] The lettuce turned bitter and bolted. The Green Comet broccoli was good, but my coveted Romanescos never headed up.
ref: 1995, Anne Raver, “Gandhi Gardening”, in Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:
text: Hardneck garlic bolts, which means it produces a single flower stalk, also known as a scape. It is considered to be far tastier and “gourmet.” You can find hardneck garlic mainly at farmers' markets […]
ref: 2011, Trina Clickner, A Miscellany of Garlic: From Paying Off Pyramids and Scaring Away Tigers to Inspiring Courage and Curing Hiccups, the Unusual Power Behind the World's Most Humble Vegetable, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
qualifier: spinach; garlic; onion; etc; spinach; garlic; onion; etc
glosses: To produce flower stalks and flowers or seeds quickly or prematurely; to form a bolt (stalk or scape); to go to seed.
raw_tags: of lettuce
examples: text: Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship’s decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them;
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 64, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 327:
text: Some hawks and owls bolt their prey whole, and after an interval of from twelve to twenty hours, disgorge pellets, which, as I know from experiments made in the Zoological Gardens, include seeds capable of germination.
ref: 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Geographical Distribution”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 362:
glosses: To swallow food without chewing it.
examples: text: Come on, everyone, bolt your drinks; I want to go to the next pub!
glosses: To drink one's drink very quickly; to down a drink.
examples: text: John Silber charged that people who bolted the Democratic Party in this election are "Kamakaze ^([sic]) liberals", beneath contempt and clearly too stupid to deserve to vote.
ref: 1990 December 9, Richard Braun, “A Whole New Day For The Party: Giving Us A Voice”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 5:
topics: government
politics
glosses: To refuse to support a nomination made by a party or caucus with which one has been connected; to break away from a party.
examples: text: I hate when vice can bolt her arguments.
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 26, line 760:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
glosses: To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out.
Derived terms: boltable
bolt down
bolt in
bolt-on
rebolt