bolster

Meanings

Noun

• A large cushion or pillow.
• A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
• A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn.
• A short, horizontal structural timber between a post and a beam for enlarging the bearing area of the post and/or reducing the span of the beam.
• A beam in the middle of a railway truck, supporting the body of the car.
• The perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
• The part of a knife blade that abuts upon the end of the handle.
• The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
• The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
• A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.

Verb

• To brace, reinforce, secure, or support.

Related

Similar words

• Dutch wife

Origin

• From Middle English bolster, bolstre, from Old English bolster, from Proto-West Germanic *bolstr, from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz. Cognate with Scots bowster ("bolster"), West Frisian bulster ("mattress"), Dutch bolster ("husk, shell"), German Polster ("bolster, pillow, pad"), Swedish bolster ("soft mattress, bolster"), Icelandic bólstur ("pillow").