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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

5 entries under this word

Boot

Bōōt, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. BOOTED; p. pr. & vb. n. BOOTING.] [A-S. bōt, compensation, amends, bētan, to improve, amend, bet, better, Goth. bōta, advantage, profit, bōtan, bōtjan, to profit, help, bats, good, useful, O. Sax. buota, D. boete, Icel. bōt, Sw. bot, Dan. bod, O. H. Ger. puoz, puoza, N. H. Ger. buoz, busze, penalty, remedy, repentance, O. S. buotian, D. boeten, Icel. boeta, Sw. bōta, Dan. böde, O. H. Ger. puozan, M. H. Ger. büezen, N. H. Ger. büszen, to amend, repair, expiate. See BETTER.]

Sense 1. To profit; to advantage;—generally followed by it: as, what boots it?

What subdued To change like this a mind so far imbued With scorn of man, it little boots to know. Byron.

What boots to us your victories? Southey.

Nor boots it with reluctant feet To linger on the strand. Southey.

Sense 2. To enrich; to benefit. [Obs.]

And I will boot thee with what gift beside Thy modesty can beg. Shak.

Bōot, n.

noun

n. That which is given to make an exchange equal, or to supply the deficiency of value in one of the things exchanged; profit; gain; advantage. I'll give you boot: I'll give you three for one. Shak. Then talk no more of flight: it is no boot. Shak. Thou art boot for many a bruise, And healest many a wound. W. Scott. Next her Son, our soul's best boot. Wordsworth. To boot, in addition; over and above; besides; as a compensation for the difference of value between things bartered. Helen to change would give an eye to boot. Shak. A man's heaviness is refreshed long before he comes to drunkenness, for when he arrives thither he hath but changed his heaviness, and taken a crime to boot. Bp. Taylor.

Bōōt, n.

noun

n. [Fr. botte, Pr. & Sp. bota, boot, cask, leather bag, Pg. bota, boot, It. botte, cask, Ger. botte, butte, bütte, tub, cask, M. H. Ger. bütte, büte, büten, O. H. Ger. putin, putina, A-S. butte, bytte, byden, Eng. butt, Icel. & Sw. bytta, Dan. bötte, Gr. βῶτις, βῦτις, βυτίον, πυτίον, flask, L. Lat. butta.]

  1. A covering for the foot and leg, ordinarily made of leather.
  2. An instrument made of iron, formerly used to torture criminals, particularly in Scotland.

So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between them and the leg. Burnet.

  1. A box or receptacle covered with leather at either end of a coach.
  2. An apron or leathern cover for a gig or other carriage, to defend from rain and mud.
  3. (pl.) A servant at hotels who blacks the boots. [Colloq.] Shak.

Bōot, v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. BOOTED; p. pr. & vb. n. BOOTING.] To put boots on. “Coated and booted for it.” B. Jonson.

Bōot, n.

noun

n. Booty. [Obs. and rare.] Chapman.