Bootstrap Meaning
/ˈbuːtˌstɹæp/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA loop (leather or other material) sewn at the side or top rear of a boot to help in pulling the boot on.
nounA means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something without aid.
Sentence Examples
She used a bootstrap to start her business.
The computer was able to bootstrap itself.
The startup decided to bootstrap its operations rather than seek funding.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She managed to ____ her small startup without any external funding.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The entrepreneurs used a ____ approach to fund their new business.
Word Origin & History
From boot + strap. The sense "pull up (without aid)" comes from the phrase pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I was born into that shitty town, maleness, in the remains of outdated ideals and misplaced machismo and repression and there are some good people stuck living there. They are not in charge. They did not build it. And I don’t feel okay just moving out and saying “fuck y’all — bootstrap your way out or die out, I was never one of you.” I want to make it a better, healthier place—not spend all my time talking about how shitty it is and how anyone who would choose to live there deserves it."
— 2016 March 11, Jennifer Coates, “I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out.”, in Medium:
"And she finds the plan. She doesn't remember it; she bootstraps it from first principles, in a handful of minutes, just like she's done a hundred times before."
— 2016 January 1, qntm, “Your Last First Day”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 04 Sep 2024:
"Gradually, more and more terms were discovered, especially as there was a tendency in the literature to list a number of related terms together, thus allowing me to bootstrap new terms found accompanying those originally searched for."
— 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She managed to ____ her small startup without any external funding.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The entrepreneurs used a ____ approach to fund their new business.