Bolt noun [ Anglo-Saxon bolt ; akin to Icelandic bolti , Danish bolt , Dutch bout , Old High German bolz , German bolz , bolzen ; of uncertain origin.]
1. A shaft or missile intended to be shot from a crossbow or catapult, esp. a short, stout, blunt-headed arrow; a quarrel; an arrow, or that which resembles an arrow; a dart.

Look that the crossbowmen lack not bolts .
Sir W. Scott.

A fool's bolt is soon shot.
Shak.

2. Lightning; a thunderbolt.

3. A strong pin, of iron or other material, used to fasten or hold something in place, often having a head at one end and screw thread cut upon the other end.

4. A sliding catch, or fastening, as for a door or gate; the portion of a lock which is shot or withdrawn by the action of the key.

5. An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter. [ Obsolete]

Away with him to prison!
lay bolts enough upon him.
Shak.

6. A compact package or roll of cloth, as of canvas or silk, often containing about forty yards.

7. A bundle, as of oziers.

Bolt auger , an auger of large size; an auger to make holes for the bolts used by shipwrights. -- Bolt and nut , a metallic pin with a head formed upon one end, and a movable piece (the nut) screwed upon a thread cut upon the other end. See B, C, and D, in illust. above.

See Tap bolt , Screw bolt , and Stud bolt .

Bolt transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bolted ; present participle & verbal noun Bolting .]
1. To shoot; to discharge or drive forth.

2. To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out.

I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments.
Milton.

3. To swallow without chewing; as, to bolt food.

4. (U. S. Politics) To refuse to support, as a nomination made by a party to which one has belonged or by a caucus in which one has taken part.

5. (Sporting) To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge, as conies, rabbits, etc.

6. To fasten or secure with, or as with, a bolt or bolts, as a door, a timber, fetters; to shackle; to restrain.

Let tenfold iron bolt my door.
Langhorn.

Which shackles accidents and bolts up change.
Shak.

Bolt (bōlt; 110) intransitive verb
1. To start forth like a bolt or arrow; to spring abruptly; to come or go suddenly; to dart; as, to bolt out of the room.

This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, . . .
And oft out of a bush doth bolt .
Drayton.

2. To strike or fall suddenly like a bolt.

His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.
Milton.

3. To spring suddenly aside, or out of the regular path; as, the horse bolted .

4. (U.S. Politics) To refuse to support a nomination made by a party or a caucus with which one has been connected; to break away from a party.

Bolt adverb In the manner of a bolt; suddenly; straight; unbendingly.

[ He] came bolt up against the heavy dragoon.
Thackeray.

Bolt upright . (a) Perfectly upright; perpendicular; straight up; unbendingly erect. Addison. (b) On the back at full length. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Bolt noun [ From Bolt , intransitive verb ]
1. A sudden spring or start; a sudden spring aside; as, the horse made a bolt .

2. A sudden flight, as to escape creditors.

This gentleman was so hopelessly involved that he contemplated a bolt to America -- or anywhere.
Compton Reade.

3. (U. S. Politics) A refusal to support a nomination made by the party with which one has been connected; a breaking away from one's party.

Bolt noun A sieve, esp. a long fine sieve used in milling for bolting flour and meal; a bolter. B. Jonson.

Boltel noun See Boultel .

Bolter noun One who bolts; esp.: (a) A horse which starts suddenly aside. (b) A man who breaks away from his party.

Bolter noun
1. One who sifts flour or meal.

2. An instrument or machine for separating bran from flour, or the coarser part of meal from the finer; a sieve.

Bolter noun A kind of fishing line. See Boulter .

Bolthead noun
1. (Chemistry) A long, straight-necked, glass vessel for chemical distillations; -- called also a matrass or receiver.

2. The head of a bolt.

Bolting noun A darting away; a starting off or aside.

Bolting noun
1. A sifting, as of flour or meal.

2. (Law) A private arguing of cases for practice by students, as in the Inns of Court. [ Obsolete]

Bolting cloth , wire, hair, silk, or other sieve cloth of different degrees of fineness; -- used by millers for sifting flour. McElrath. -- Bolting hutch , a bin or tub for the bolted flour or meal ; (fig.) a receptacle.

Boltonite noun (Min.) A granular mineral of a grayish or yellowish color, found in Bolton, Massachusetts. It is a silicate of magnesium, belonging to the chrysolite family.

Boltrope noun (Nautical) A rope stitched to the edges of a sail to strengthen the sail.

Boltsprit noun [ A corruption of bowsprit .] (Nautical) See Bowsprit .

Bolty noun (Zoology) An edible fish of the Nile (genus Chromis ). [ Written also bulti .]

Bolus noun ; plural Boluses [ Latin bolus bit, morsel; confer German ... lump of earth. See Bole , noun , clay.] A rounded mass of anything, esp. a large pill.

Bom noun (Zoology) A large American serpent, so called from the sound it makes.

Bomb noun [ French bombe bombshell, from Latin bombus a humming or buzzing noise, Greek ... .]

1. A great noise; a hollow sound. [ Obsolete]

A pillar of iron . . . which if you had struck, would make . . . a great bomb in the chamber beneath.
Bacon.

2. (Mil.) A shell; esp. a spherical shell, like those fired from mortars. See Shell .

3. A bomb ketch.

Bomb chest (Mil.) , a chest filled with bombs, or only with gunpowder, placed under ground, to cause destruction by its explosion. -- Bomb ketch , Bomb vessel (Nautical) , a small ketch or vessel, very strongly built, on which mortars are mounted to be used in naval bombardments; -- called also mortar vessel . -- Bomb lance , a lance or harpoon with an explosive head, used in whale fishing. -- Volcanic bomb , a mass of lava of a spherical or pear shape. "I noticed volcanic bombs ." Darwin.

Bomb transitive verb To bombard. [ Obsolete] Prior.

Bomb intransitive verb [ Confer Boom .] To sound; to boom; to make a humming or buzzing sound. [ Obsolete] B. Jonson.

Bombace noun [ Old French ] Cotton; padding. [ Obsolete]

Bombard noun [ French bombarde , Late Latin bombarda , from Latin bombus + -ard . Confer Bumper , and see Bomb .]
1. (Gun.) A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon.

They planted in divers places twelve great bombards , wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses.
Knolles.

2. A bombardment. [ Poetic & R.] J. Barlow.

3. A large drinking vessel or can, or a leather bottle, for carrying liquor or beer. [ Obsolete]

Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor.
Shak.

4. plural Padded breeches. [ Obsolete]

Bombard phrase , inflated language; bombast. [ Obsolete] B. Jonson.

Bombard noun [ Middle English bombarde , from French bombarde .] (Mus.) See Bombardo . [ Obsolete]

Bombard transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bombarded ; present participle & verbal noun Bombarding .] To attack with bombards or with artillery; especially, to throw shells, hot shot, etc., at or into.

Next, she means to bombard Naples.
Burke.

His fleet bombarded and burnt down Dieppe.
Wood.

Bombardier noun [ French bombardier .] (Mil.) (a) One who used or managed a bombard; an artilleryman; a gunner. [ Archaic] (b) A noncommissioned officer in the British artillery.

Bombardier beetle (Zoology) , a kind of beetle ( Brachinus crepitans ), so called because, when disturbed, it makes an explosive discharge of a pungent and acrid vapor from its anal glands. The name is applied to other related species, as the B. displosor , which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The common American species is B. fumans .

Bombardman noun One who carried liquor or beer in a can or bombard. [ Obsolete]

They . . . made room for a bombardman that brought bouge for a country lady.
B. Jonson.

Bombardment noun [ French bombardement .] An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place.

Bombardo, Bombardon noun [ Italian bombardo .] (Mus.) Originally, a deep-toned instrument of the oboe or bassoon family; thence, a bass reed stop on the organ. The name bombardon is now given to a brass instrument, the lowest of the saxhorns, in tone resembling the ophicleide. Grove.

Bombasine noun Same as Bombazine .

Bombast (bŏm"bȧst or bŭm"bȧst; 277) noun [ Old French bombace cotton, Late Latin bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine .]
1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [ Obsolete]

A candle with a wick of bombast .
Lupton.

2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [ Obsolete]

How now, my sweet creature of bombast !
Shak.

Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least.
Stubbes.

3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.

Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid.
Dryden.

Bombast adjective High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.

[ He] evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war.
Shak.

Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way.
Cowley.

Bombast (bŏm*bȧst" or bŭm*bȧst") transitive verb To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [ Obsolete]

Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.
Drayton.

Bombastic (bŏm*bȧs"tĭk or bŭm*bȧs"tĭk), Bom*bas"tic*al adjective Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated. -- Bom*bas"tic*al*ly , adverb

A theatrical, bombastic , windy phraseology.
Burke.

Syn. -- Turgid; tumid; pompous; grandiloquent.

Bombastry noun Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian.

Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all.
Swift.

Bombax noun [ Late Latin , cotton. See Bombast , noun ] (Botany) A genus of trees, called also the silkcotton tree ; also, a tree of the genus Bombax.

Bombazet Bombazette noun [ Confer Bombazine .] A sort of thin woolen cloth. It is of various colors, and may be plain or twilled.

Bombazine noun [ French bombasin , Late Latin bombacinium , bambacinium , Latin bombycinus silken, bombycinum a silk or cotton texture, from bombyx silk, silkworm, Greek ... . Confer Bombast , Bombycinous .] A twilled fabric for dresses, of which the warp is silk, and the weft worsted. Black bombazine has been much used for mourning garments. [ Sometimes spelt bombasin , and bombasine .] Tomlinson.

Bombic adjective [ Latin bombyx silk, silkworm: confer French bombique .] Pertaining to, or obtained from, the silkworm; as, bombic acid.

Bombilate intransitive verb [ Late Latin bombilare , for Latin bombitare . See Bomb , noun ] To hum; to buzz. [ R.]

Bombilation noun A humming sound; a booming.

To . . . silence the bombilation of guns.
Sir T. Browne.

Bombinate intransitive verb To hum; to boom.

Bombination noun A humming or buzzing.

Bombolo noun ; plural Bomboloes [ Confer It bombola a pitcher.] A thin spheroidal glass retort or flask, used in the sublimation of camphor. [ Written also bumbelo , and bumbolo .]

Bombproof adjective Secure against the explosive force of bombs. -- noun A structure which heavy shot and shell will not penetrate.

Bombshell noun A bomb. See Bomb , noun

Bombycid adjective (Zoology) Like or pertaining to the genus Bombyx, or the family Bombycidæ .

Bombycinous adjective [ Latin bombycinus . See Bombazine .]
1. Silken; made of silk. [ Obsolete] Coles.

2. Being of the color of the silkworm; transparent with a yellow tint. E. Darwin.

Bombylious adjective [ Latin bombylius a bumblebee, Greek ... .] Buzzing, like a bumblebee; as, the bombylious noise of the horse fly. [ Obsolete] Derham.