boot

This instrument of torture was an iron container made in the shape of a boot and designed to encase the naked limb from foot to the knee. Wedges of wood or metal were inserted between the flesh and the sides of the apparatus and driven in with a hammer. The flesh was lacerated and often the bones were crushed and splintered in a shocking and dreadful manner. The terrible punishment would continue until the victim confessed. It was rare for anyone who experienced this torture to be other than a cripple for the rest of his life.

In 1583, in Dublin, an Irish priest named Hurley - suspected of treason - remained mute when brought before the Lord Justices, Archbishop Loftus and Sir H. Wallop. On appying to London for instructions, the Irish council was told to put him to the torture in order to induce him to speak. As no rack was available, "hot boots" - in which melted resin was poured - were applied, and Hurley confessed. (J.A. Froude, History of England, 1863)

Often caused by the consumption of too much beer, wake-up juice, or pathogenic organisms. See also boot and rally.

book titles = B = Borg

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.

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v. to expel pre-ride stomach fillers due to extreme physical exertion. "That climb was hairy, I think Brian had to boot back there."

From the Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang

Example usage: "Yeah, so we were chatting on #randomchannel when this idiot came in complaining about how he had been booted from the Return to Castle Wolfenstein server for being a team killer - so the op booted his ass again."

Boot, an article of dress, generally of leather, covering the foot and extending to a greater or less distance up the leg. Hence the name was given to an instrument of torture made of iron, or a combination of iron and wood, fastened on to the leg, between which and the boot wedges were introduced and driven in by repeated blows of a mallet, with such violence as to crush both muscles and bones. The special object of this form of torture was to extort a confession of guilt from an accused person.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

Boot (?), n. [OE. bot, bote, adbantage, amends, cure, AS. bt; akin to Icel. bt, Sw. bot, Dan. bod, Goth. bta, D. boete, G. busse; prop., a making good or better, from the root of E. better, adj. 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.

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.

© Webster 1913.

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.

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

© Webster 1913.

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.

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.

© Webster 1913.

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.

© Webster 1913.

Boot, v. i.

To boot one's self; to put on one's boots.

© Webster 1913.

Boot, n.

Booty; spoil.

Shak.

© Webster 1913.