Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A loop of leather, cloth, or synthetic material that is sewn at the side or the top rear of a boot to help in pulling the boot on.
- noun An instance of starting of a computer; a boot.
- noun Statistics A method of estimating a population's characteristics (such as its mean) by repeatedly subsampling from a given initial sample, thereby avoiding the use of theoretical probability distributions.
- transitive verb To promote and develop by use of one's own initiative and work without reliance on outside help.
- transitive verb Statistics To gather information about a population from a single sample, using repeated samples drawn with replacement.
- transitive verb Computers To boot (a computer).
- adjective Undertaken or accomplished with minimal outside help.
- adjective Being or relating to a process that is self-initiating or self-sustaining.
- idiom (by (one's) (own) bootstraps) By one's own efforts.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
loop (leather or other material) sewn at the side or top rear of a boot to help inpulling the boot on. - noun A
means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something without aid. - noun computing The process by which the operating system of a computer is loaded into its memory
- noun computing The process necessary to
compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of the system or program. - noun statistics Any method or instance of estimating properties of an estimator (such as its variance) by measuring those properties when sampling from an approximating distribution.
- verb To
help (oneself) without the aid of others. - verb computing To load the
operating system into the memory of a computer. Usually shortened to boot. - verb computing To
compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of the system or program.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb help oneself, often through improvised means
- noun a strap that is looped and sewn to the top of a boot for pulling it on
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bootstrap.
Examples
-
In the late sixties, Jerry and a pair of protégés, Henry Kravis and George Roberts, began pursuing what they called bootstrap investments—what later became famously known as leveraged buyouts.
The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns Alan C. Greenberg 2010
-
In the late sixties, Jerry and a pair of protégés, Henry Kravis and George Roberts, began pursuing what they called bootstrap investments—what later became famously known as leveraged buyouts.
The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns Alan C. Greenberg 2010
-
Because of that connectedness, the only URI you need to give to your clients is one URI called the bootstrap URI..
-
My dad was a PDP-11 programmer in the old days, and he's got great stories about booting the machine up with a "bootstrap" -- a strip of punched cardboard that you whipped through the computer like the strip on a Hot Wheels car, so that it could find all the gunk it needed to start up properly.
-
The good news is that many could be "bootstrap" - financing technologies.
FOXNews.com 2009
-
I’ve gotten some emails from people who seem like they might know what they’re doing on the insides of WordPress, so I’ll play along and start the bootstrap from the OPML Editor side of things (hoping some OPML Editor users or developers pitch in when they see questions they can answer).
Start OPML Editor support for WP « Scripting News Annex 2006
-
A bootstrap is a process which, in order to create an X, you need one or more X's.
Scripting News 2010
-
Old people, for the most part, no longer fit into the "bootstrap" narrative that says the best kind of person is the one who is most in control and least reliant on other people.
Lynn Casteel Harper: Aging with Courage: The Beginning of a Living Faith 2010
-
Old people, for the most part, no longer fit into the "bootstrap" narrative that says the best kind of person is the one who is most in control and least reliant on other people.
Lynn Casteel Harper: Aging with Courage: The Beginning of a Living Faith 2010
-
In effect, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald argued this morning, to "bootstrap" the evidence and the arguments into the case.
Christy Hardin Smith: Libby Trial: Peeling Back The Layers 2008
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.