Word: bolt Part of Speech: verb 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. The association of thunder and lightning with 'bolts' is found back into prehistory in many cultures, at least in Eurasia. It comes from the long-standing widespread belief that lightning was caused by bolts, darts, or stones hurtling down from the sky to the earth. This belief was still regarded as commonplace until at least 1929. Pronunciation: /bɒlt/, /bəʊlt/, [bɔʊɫt], /boʊlt/ 1. To connect or assemble pieces using a bolt. Labels: transitive Example: Bolt the vice to the bench. 2. To affix in a crude or unnatural manner. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: 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. Example: Going through the motions with an empty smile bolted on my face 3. To secure a door by locking or barring it. Labels: transitive Example: Bolt the door. Example: 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. 4. To flee, to depart, to accelerate away suddenly. Labels: intransitive Example: Seeing the snake, the horse bolted. Example: The actor forgot his line and bolted from the stage. 5. To escape. Labels: intransitive 6. To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge (an animal being hunted). Labels: transitive Example: to bolt a rabbit 7. To strike or fall suddenly like a bolt. Example: His cloudleſs thunder bolted on thir heads. 8. To produce flower stalks and flowers or seeds quickly or prematurely; to form a bolt (stalk or scape); to go to seed. Labels: intransitive Example: Lettuce and spinach will bolt as the weather warms up. Example: 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 […] 9. To swallow food without chewing it. Labels: transitive Example: 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; Example: 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. 10. To drink one's drink very quickly; to down a drink. Labels: transitive Example: Come on, everyone, bolt your drinks; I want to go to the next pub! 11. To refuse to support a nomination made by a party or caucus with which one has been connected; to break away from a party. Labels: US Example: 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. 12. To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out. Example: I hate when vice can bolt her arguments.