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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

boot.

A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.

  2. A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg. A kind of sports shoe worn by players of certain games such as cricket and football (historically in the form of boots, now shorter, but still called the same).

  3. A blow with the foot; a kick.

    uncountable
  4. A flexible cover of rubber or plastic, which may be preformed to a particular shape and used to protect a shaft, lever, switch, or opening from dust, dirt, moisture, etc.

  5. Oppression, an oppressor.

    figuratively · with-definite-article
  6. A torture device used on the feet or legs, such as a Spanish boot.

  7. A parking enforcement device used to immobilize a car until it can be towed or a fine is paid; a wheel clamp.

    US
  8. A rubber bladder on the leading edge of an aircraft’s wing, which is inflated periodically to remove ice buildup; a deicing boot.

  9. A place at the side of a coach, where attendants rode; also, a low outside place before and behind the body of the coach.

    obsolete
  10. A place for baggage at either end of an old-fashioned stagecoach.

    archaic
  11. The luggage storage compartment of a sedan or saloon car.

    Australia · New-Zealand · South-Africa · UK
  12. The act or process of removing or firing someone (dismissing them from a job or other post).

    informal · with-definite-article
    He was useless so he got the boot.
  13. An unattractive person, ugly woman.

    UK · slang
    old boot
  14. A recently arrived recruit; a rookie.

    US · slang
  15. A soldier, especially a footsoldier.

    US · plural · usually
    We do not anticipate there will be US boots on the ground to help quell the violence.
  16. A black person.

    ethnic · slang · slur
  17. A hard or rigid case for a long firearm, typically moulded to the shape of the gun.

  18. A bobbled ball.

  19. The inflated flag leaf sheath of a wheat plant.

  20. A linear amplifier used with CB radio.

    slang
  21. A tyre.

    slang
  22. A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.

    US
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boote, bote (“shoe”), from Old French bote (“a high, thick shoe”). Of obscure origin, but probably related to Old French bot (“club-foot”), bot (“fat, short, blunt”), from Old Frankish *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, *butaz (“cut off, short, numb, blunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewt-, *bʰewd- (“to strike, push, shock”); if so, a doublet of butt. Compare Old Norse butt (“stump”), Low German butt (“blunt, plump”), Old English bytt (“small piece of land”), buttuc (“end”). More at buttock and debut.

verb/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. To kick.

    transitive
    I booted the ball toward my teammate.
    You nearly booted me in the face!
  2. To put boots on, especially for riding.

  3. To step on the accelerator of a vehicle for faster acceleration than usual or to drive faster than usual.

    Canada · US · colloquial · usually
    The storm is coming fast! Boot it!
    We had to boot it all the way there to get to our flight on time.
  4. To eject; kick out.

    informal
    We need to boot those troublemakers as soon as possible.
    The senator was booted from the committee for unethical behavior.
  5. To disconnect forcibly; to eject from an online service, conversation, etc.

    informal
  6. To vomit.

    slang
    Sorry, I didn’t mean to boot all over your couch.
  7. To shoot, to kill by gunfire.

    Multicultural-London-English · slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boote, bote (“shoe”), from Old French bote (“a high, thick shoe”). Of obscure origin, but probably related to Old French bot (“club-foot”), bot (“fat, short, blunt”), from Old Frankish *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, *butaz (“cut off, short, numb, blunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewt-, *bʰewd- (“to strike, push, shock”); if so, a doublet of butt. Compare Old Norse butt (“stump”), Low German butt (“blunt, plump”), Old English bytt (“small piece of land”), buttuc (“end”). More at buttock and debut.

noun/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. Remedy, amends.

    archaic · countable · dialectal · uncountable
  2. Profit, plunder.

    uncountable
  3. That which is given to make an exchange equal, or to make up for the deficiency of value in one of the things exchanged; compensation; recompense.

    countable · uncountable
  4. Profit; gain; advantage; use.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  5. Repair work; the act of fixing structures or buildings.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  6. A medicinal cure or remedy.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boote, bote, bot, from Old English bōt (“help, relief, advantage”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōtu, from Proto-Germanic *bōtō (“atonement, improvement”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰed- (“good”). Akin to Old Norse bót (“bettering, remedy”) (Danish bod), Gothic 𐌱𐍉𐍄𐌰 (bōta), German Buße. Doublet of bote (a borrowing from Middle English).

verb/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. To be beneficial, to help.

    archaic · impersonal · intransitive · transitive
  2. To matter; to be relevant.

    archaic · impersonal · intransitive
  3. To enrich.

    archaic · rare · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boote, bote, bot, from Old English bōt (“help, relief, advantage”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōtu, from Proto-Germanic *bōtō (“atonement, improvement”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰed- (“good”). Akin to Old Norse bót (“bettering, remedy”) (Danish bod), Gothic 𐌱𐍉𐍄𐌰 (bōta), German Buße. Doublet of bote (a borrowing from Middle English).

noun/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. The act or process of bootstrapping; the starting or re-starting of a computing device.

    archaic
    It took three boots, but I finally got the application installed.
Where this word comes from

Clipping of bootstrap.

verb/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. To bootstrap; to start a system, e.g. a computer, by invoking its boot process or bootstrap.

    archaic
    When arriving at the office, the first thing I do is boot my machine.
Where this word comes from

Clipping of bootstrap.

noun/buːt/Received-Pronunciation/bʉwt/British, Southern, Standard/but/General-American/bʉːt/Australia
  1. A bootleg recording.

    archaic · informal
Where this word comes from

From bootleg (“to make or sell illegally”), by shortening.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.