The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to
      extort confessions, particularly in Scotland.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.]
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A place for baggage at either end of an old-fashioned
      stagecoach.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. An apron or cover (of leather or rubber cloth) for the
      driving seat of a vehicle, to protect from rain and mud.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. (Plumbing) The metal casing and flange fitted about a pipe
      where it passes through a roof.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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?
      [1913 Webster]

            What booteth it to others that we wish them well,
            and do nothing for them?              --Hooker.
      [1913 Webster]

            What subdued
            To change like this a mind so far imbued
            With scorn of man, it little boots to know. --Byron.
      [1913 Webster]

            What boots to us your victories?      --Southey.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To enrich; to benefit; to give in addition. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            And I will boot thee with what gift beside
            Thy modesty can beg.                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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.
      [1913 Webster]

            He gaf the sike man his boote.        --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thou art boot for many a bruise
            And healest many a wound.             --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
      [1913 Webster]

            Next her Son, our soul's best boot.   --Wordsworth.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

            I'll give you boot, I'll give you three for one.
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Profit; gain; advantage; use. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   To boot, in addition; over and above; besides; as a
      compensation for the difference of value between things
      bartered.
      [1913 Webster]

            Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Boot \Boot\, n.
   Booty; spoil. [Obs. or R.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Boot \Boot\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Booted; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Booting.]
   1. To put boots on, esp. for riding.
      [1913 Webster]

            Coated and booted for it.             --B. Jonson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To punish by kicking with a booted foot. [U. S.]
      [1913 Webster]
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Boot \Boot\, v. i.
   To boot one's self; to put on one's boots.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

boot
    n 1: footwear that covers the whole foot and lower leg
    2: British term for the luggage compartment in a car
    3: the swift release of a store of affective force; "they got a
       great bang out of it"; "what a boot!"; "he got a quick rush
       from injecting heroin"; "he does it for kicks" [syn: bang,
       boot, charge, rush, flush, thrill, kick]
    4: protective casing for something that resembles a leg
    5: an instrument of torture that is used to heat or crush the
       foot and leg [syn: boot, the boot, iron boot, iron
       heel]
    6: a form of foot torture in which the feet are encased in iron
       and slowly crushed
    7: the act of delivering a blow with the foot; "he gave the ball
       a powerful kick"; "the team's kicking was excellent" [syn:
       kick, boot, kicking]
    v 1: kick; give a boot to
    2: cause to load (an operating system) and start the initial
       processes; "boot your computer" [syn: boot, reboot,
       bring up]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

235 Moby Thesaurus words for "boot":
   Naval Reservist, Procrustean bed, Royal Marine, Seabee,
   abecedarian, additionally, alphabetarian, also, apprentice,
   articled clerk, as well, avail, bang, bed of Procrustes, beginner,
   besides, bloomer, blooper, blow, bluejacket, bobble, bonehead play,
   boner, bonnet, boo-boo, boob stunt, booting out, boots, bounce,
   break, breech, bump, bust, cadet, calcitration, can, cap, cashier,
   cashiering, catechumen, charge, chaussure, cloak, clodhoppers,
   coat, coif, colt, conge, conscript, debutant, defenestration,
   defrock, degrade, demote, deplume, deposal, depose, deprive,
   detrusion, disbar, discharge, disemploy, disemployment, dismiss,
   dismissal, displace, displacing, displume, draft, drafted man,
   draftee, drop a brick, drop kick, drop the ball, drum out,
   drumming out, duff, dumb trick, eject, ejection, ejectment,
   enlistee, enrollee, entrant, expel, expulsion, extrusion, fire,
   firing, fledgling, fluff, flush, fool mistake, footgear, footwear,
   foozle, forced separation, foul up, foul-up, freshman, frock,
   frogman, furlough, furloughing, give the ax, give the gate, gob,
   goof, gown, greenhorn, gunboats, hat, help, hood, horse marine,
   howler, ignoramus, in addition, inductee, initiate,
   into the bargain, iron heel, jacket, jettison, jollies, jolly,
   kick, kick upstairs, kicking, kicking downstairs, knee, lay off,
   layoff, let go, let out, levy, lift, louse up, louse-up,
   make redundant, mantle, marine, midshipman, midshipmite, moreover,
   muck up, muck-up, naval cadet, navy man, neophyte, novice,
   novitiate, obtrusion, ouster, ousting, pattens, pension off,
   pink slip, place kick, postulant, pratfall, probationer,
   probationist, profit, propel, pull a boner, punt, push, quiver,
   rack, raw recruit, read out of, recruit, rejection, release,
   removal, remove, replace, retire, retirement, rookie, rush,
   rush of emotion, sabots, sack, scarpines, screamer, screw,
   screw up, screw-up, selectee, sensation, separate forcibly, shirt,
   shiver, shoe, shoes, shove, shudder, sock, stocking, strip,
   superannuate, surge of emotion, surplus, surplusing, suspend,
   suspension, swabbie, tenderfoot, the ax, the boot, the bounce,
   the gate, the sack, thrill, throwing out, thumbscrew, ticket,
   tingle, tingling, titillation, to boot, too, trainee, tremor,
   tremor of excitement, turn off, turn out, tyro, unfrock,
   walking papers, wallop, wheel, wooden shoes



The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

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.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

bootstrap
boot
booting

    To load and initialise the
   operating system on a computer.  Normally abbreviated to
   "boot".  From the curious expression "to pull oneself up by
   one's bootstraps", one of the legendary feats of Baron von
   Munchhausen.  The bootstrap loader is the program that runs
   on the computer before any (normal) program can run.  Derived
   terms include reboot, cold boot, warm boot, soft boot
   and hard boot.

   The term also applies to the use of a compiler to compile
   itself.  The usual process is to write an interpreter for a
   language, L, in some other existing language.  The compiler is
   then written in L and the interpreter is used to run it.  This
   produces an executable for compiling programs in L from the
   source of the compiler in L.  This technique is often used to
   verify the correctness of a compiler.  It was first used in
   the LISP community.

   See also My Favourite Toy Language.

   [Jargon File]

   (2005-04-12)