Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The marsh-marigold, Caltha palustris.
  • noun The porter or servant in a hotel who blacks the boots of guests and in some cases attends to the baggage. Formerly called a boot-catcher.
  • noun In tales of Norse mythology, the youngest son of a family, always represented as especially clever and successful.
  • noun A name applied to the youngest officer in a British regiment, or to the youngest member of a club, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A servant at a hotel or elsewhere, who cleans and blacks the boots and shoes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of boot.
  • noun sports The sports shoes worn by players of certain games such as cricket and football.
  • noun dated A servant at a hotel etc. who cleans and blacks the boots and shoes. (takes a singular verb)
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of boot.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • My "I don't need to have a baby, I've got great boots boots*"

    keris stainton 2009

  • This chap's boots hadn't been cleaned for days, but they were _boots_, and not holes to put your feet into, like most people wear. "

    The Hand in the Dark 1907

  • Burns, the State Department's senior career foreign service officer, said the United States would support a U.N. Security Council resolution that includes and goes beyond a no-fly-zone, but would stop short of what he termed "boots on the ground," or direct intervention by U.S. or other ground troops.

    US: A Victorious Gadhafi Could Return to Terrorism 2011

  • Burns, the State Department's senior career foreign service officer, said the United States would support a U.N. Security Council resolution that includes and goes beyond a no-fly-zone, but would stop short of what he termed "boots on the ground," or direct intervention by U.S. or other ground troops.

    US: A Victorious Gadhafi Could Return to Terrorism 2011

  • Burns, the State Department's senior career foreign service officer, said the United States would support a U.N. Security Council resolution that includes and goes beyond a no-fly-zone, but would stop short of what he termed "boots on the ground," or direct intervention by U.S. or other ground troops.

    US: A Victorious Gadhafi Could Return to Terrorism 2011

  • However, I will say that a night where I have dinner with Jon Stewart (and my wife whips him in a trivia contest), and then I have sex with Carrie Fisher in a Princess Leia outfit with leather boots is a pretty good night.

    My Childhood Was Full Of Monsters 2004

  • And in this case they finally had to put what they call boots on the ground.

    CNN Transcript Mar 5, 2002 2002

  • But, of course, Paula, it represents a new development in this war, what they call boots on the ground.

    CNN Transcript Nov 26, 2001 2001

  • And the laced high-lows which they call their boots,

    The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Complete Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • And the laced high-lows which they call their boots,

    The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 04: Songs in Many Keys Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • We focused on winter “pac boots,” a term that broadly refers to a style of winter boot with a big, waterproof rubber base that encases most of the exterior foot.

    The Best Winter Boots 2024

Comments

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  • Alas! What boots it with uncessant care

    To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade ...

    Milton, Lycidas

    December 15, 2006

  • "What boots it then to think on God or heaven?"

    - Christopher Marlowe, 'Doctor Faustus'

    Compare avails.

    May 23, 2010