bolt

Meanings

Noun

• A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body that is threaded, with a larger head on one end. It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to the head, with a nut then threaded on the other end; a heavy machine screw.
• A sliding pin or bar in a lock or latch mechanism.
• A bar of wood or metal dropped in horizontal hooks on a door and adjoining wall or between the two sides of a double door, to prevent the door(s) from being forced open.
• A sliding mechanism to chamber and unchamber a cartridge in a firearm.
• A small personal-armour-piercing missile for short-range use, or (in common usage though deprecated by experts) a short arrow, intended to be shot from a crossbow or a catapult.
• A lightning spark, i.e., a lightning bolt.
• A sudden event, action or emotion.
• A large roll of fabric or similar material, as a bolt of cloth.
• A sudden spring or start; a sudden leap aside.
• A sudden flight, as to escape creditors.
• A refusal to support a nomination made by the party with which one has been connected; a breaking away from one's party.
• An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter.
• A burst of speed or efficiency.
• A stalk or scape (of garlic, onion, etc).
• A sieve, especially a long fine sieve used in milling for bolting flour and meal; a bolter.

Verb

• To connect or assemble pieces using a bolt.
• To secure a door by locking or barring it.
• To flee, to depart, to accelerate suddenly.
• To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge (an animal being hunted).
• To strike or fall suddenly like a bolt.
• To escape.
• To produce flower stalks and flowers or seeds quickly or prematurely; to form a bolt (stalk or scape); to go to seed.
• To swallow food without chewing it.
• To drink one's drink very quickly; to down a drink.
• To refuse to support a nomination made by a party or caucus with which one has been connected; to break away from a party.
• To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out.
• To sift, especially through a cloth.
• To sift the bran and germ from wheat flour.
• To separate, assort, refine, or purify by other means.
• To discuss or argue privately, and for practice, as cases at law.

Adverb

• Suddenly; straight; unbendingly.

Origin

• From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- ("to knock, strike"). Compare Lithuanian beldu ("I knock"), baldas. Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti.
• From Middle English bulten, from Anglo-Norman buleter, Old French bulter (modern French bluter), from a Germanic source originally meaning "bag, pouch" cognate with Middle High German biuteln ("to sift"), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô ("beetle, grub, swelling"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- ("to move quickly"). Cognate with Dutch buidel.