bolt
noun
- unit of fabric measurement
- cylindrical fastener with an external thread intended to be used together with a nut
- mechanical part of a firearm
verb
- sprint away
- secure with a lock
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333771 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /bɒlt/ / /bəʊlt/ / [bɔʊɫt]
adv
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.
- Suddenly; straight; unbendingly.
“The soldiers stood bolt upright for inspection.”
“[He] came bolt up against the heavy dragoon.”
name
Etymology: * As an English surname, from the noun bolt, for a maker of bolts, or a nickname for a short and heavy person. * Also as an English surname, variant of Bold. * As a Dutch, north/Low German and Danish surname, from the old Germanic name Baldo, derived from the adjective bold and related to the above. Compare Boldt.
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
- A census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, named after an early postmaster.
- An unincorporated community in the town of Franklin, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, United States.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English bulten, from Anglo-Norman buleter, Old French bulter (modern French bluter), from a Germanic source originally meaning "bag, pouch" cognate with Middle High German biuteln (“to sift”), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô (“beetle, grub, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- (“to move quickly”). Cognate with Dutch buidel.
- A sieve, especially a long fine sieve used in milling for bolting flour and meal; a bolter.
“The combination, in a flour bolt, of a reel head having a throat near its outer edge for the passage of the tailings and a series of revolving adjustable beaters, substantially as set forth.”
“We have a number of these reels in different mills that are bolting the break flour direct from the scalping reels and scalped through No. 8 cloth. […] Now, gentlemen, they require a much less number to do a given amount of work than any other known machine or bolt, and require less space and power.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English bulten, from Anglo-Norman buleter, Old French bulter (modern French bluter), from a Germanic source originally meaning "bag, pouch" cognate with Middle High German biuteln (“to sift”), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô (“beetle, grub, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- (“to move quickly”). Cognate with Dutch buidel.
- To sift, especially through a cloth.
- To sift the bran and germ from wheat flour.
“Graham flour is unbolted flour; in contrast, some other flours have been bolted.”
- To separate, assort, refine, or purify by other means.
“ill schooled in bolted language”
“Time and Nature will Bolt out the Truth of Things.”
- To discuss or argue privately, and for practice, as cases at law.
“[…]the old habits of mooting or bolting caſes (i.e. of public disputations), might make the ſtudent more ſubtle and acute”