Definition: boot
boot
n 1: footwear that covers the whole foot and lower leg
2: compartment in an automobile that carries luggage or
shopping or tools (`boot' is British usage) [syn: luggage
compartment, automobile trunk, trunk]
3: the swift release of a store of affective force; "they got a
great bang out of it"; "what a rush!"; "he does it for
kicks" [syn: bang, charge, rush, flush, thrill,
kick]
4: protective casing for something that resembles a leg
5: an instrument of torture that is used to crush the foot and
leg [syn: iron boot, iron heel]
6: the act of delivering a blow with the foot; "he gave the
ball a powerful kick"; "the team's kicking was excellent"
[syn: kick, kicking]
v 1: kick; give a boot to
2: cause to load (an operating system) and start the initial
processes; "boot your computer" [syn: reboot, bring up]
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Elevator \El"e*va`tor\, n. [L., one who raises up, a deliverer:
cf. F. ['e]l['e]vateur.]
One who, or that which, raises or lifts up anything; as:
(a) A mechanical contrivance, usually an endless belt or
chain with a series of scoops or buckets, for
transferring grain to an upper loft for storage.
(b) A cage or platform and the hoisting machinery in a hotel,
warehouse, mine, etc., for conveying persons, goods,
etc., to or from different floors or levels; -- called in
England a lift; the cage or platform itself.
(c) A building for elevating, storing, and discharging,
grain.
(d) (Anat.) A muscle which serves to raise a part of the
body, as the leg or the eye.
(e) (Surg.) An instrument for raising a depressed portion of
a bone.
Elevator head, leg, & boot, the boxes in which the
upper pulley, belt, and lower pulley, respectively, run in
a grain elevator.
Boot \Boot\, n. [OE. bote, OF. bote, F. botte, LL. botta; of
uncertain origin.]
1. A covering for the foot and lower part of the leg,
ordinarily made of leather.
2. An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to
extort confessions, 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. --Bp. Burnet.
3. A place at the side of a coach, where attendants rode;
also, a low outside place before and behind the body of
the coach. [Obs.]
4. A place for baggage at either end of an old-fashioned
stagecoach.
5. An apron or cover (of leather or rubber cloth) for the
driving seat of a vehicle, to protect from rain and mud.
6. (Plumbing) The metal casing and flange fitted about a pipe
where it passes through a roof.
Boot catcher, the person at an inn whose business it was to
pull off boots and clean them. [Obs.] --Swift.
Boot closer, one who, or that which, sews the uppers of
boots.
Boot crimp, a frame or device used by bootmakers for
drawing and shaping the body of a boot.
Boot hook, a hook with a handle, used for pulling on boots.
Boots and saddles (Cavalry Tactics), the trumpet call which
is the first signal for mounted drill.
Sly boots. See Slyboots, in the Vocabulary.
Boot \Boot\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Booted; p. pr. & vb. n. Booting.] 1. To profit; to advantage; to avail; -- generally followed by it; as, what boots it? What booteth it to others that we wish them well, and do nothing for them? --Hooker. 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. 2. To enrich; to benefit; to give in addition. [Obs.] And I will boot thee with what gift beside Thy modesty can beg. --Shak.
Boot \Boot\ (b[=oo]t), n. [OE. bot, bote, advantage, amends,
cure, AS. b[=o]t; akin to Icel. b[=o]t, Sw. bot, Dan. bod,
Goth. b[=o]ta, D. boete, G. busse; prop., a making good or
better, from the root of E. better, adj. [root]255.]
1. Remedy; relief; amends; reparation; hence, one who brings
relief.
He gaf the sike man his boote. --Chaucer.
Thou art boot for many a bruise And healest many a
wound. --Sir W.
Scott.
Next her Son, our soul's best boot. --Wordsworth.
2. That which is given to make an exchange equal, or to make
up for the deficiency of value in one of the things
exchanged.
I'll give you boot, I'll give you three for one.
--Shak.
3. Profit; gain; advantage; use. [Obs.]
Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot. --Shak.
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. --Jer. Taylor.
Boot \Boot\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Booted; p. pr. & vb. n. Booting.] 1. To put boots on, esp. for riding. Coated and booted for it. --B. Jonson. 2. To punish by kicking with a booted foot. [U. S.]
Boot \Boot\, v. i. To boot one's self; to put on one's boots.
Boot \Boot\, n. Booty; spoil. [Obs. or R.] --Shak.
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10)
boot <operating system> (from "bootstrap" or "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps") To load and initialise the operating system on a computer. See reboot, cold boot, warm boot, soft boot, hard boot, bootstrap, bootstrap loader. [Jargon File] (1995-11-27)
Source: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
boot v.,n. [techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To load and initialize the operating system on a machine. This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still jargon. The derivative `reboot' implies that the machine hasn't been down for long, or that the boot is a bounce (sense 4) intended to clear some state of wedgitude. This is sometimes used of human thought processes, as in the following exchange: "You've lost me." "OK, reboot. Here's the theory...." This term is also found in the variants `cold boot' (from power-off condition) and `warm boot' (with the CPU and all devices already powered up, as after a hardware reset or software crash). Another variant: `soft boot', reinitialization of only part of a system, under control of other software still running: "If you're running the mess-dos emulator, control-alt-insert will cause a soft-boot of the emulator, while leaving the rest of the system running." Opposed to this there is `hard boot', which connotes hostility towards or frustration with the machine being booted: "I'll have to hard-boot this losing Sun." "I recommend booting it hard." One often hard-boots by performing a power cycle. Historical note: this term derives from `bootstrap loader', a short program that was read in from cards or paper tape, or toggled in from the front panel switches. This program was always very short (great efforts were expended on making it short in order to minimize the labor and chance of error involved in toggling it in), but was just smart enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from a card or paper tape reader), to which it handed control; this program in turn was smart enough to read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer `pulled itself up by its bootstraps' to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the `boot block'. When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it.
