Also 6 Sc. bowster, 6–8 boulster, 7 bowlster. [f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To support with a bolster. (Usually in pa. pple.)
1610. Barrough, Meth. Physick, III. ix. (1639), 113. Let your head be bolstered up high.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. 77. Bolster’d with down, amid a thousand wants.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xx. 328. She was bolstered up in bed.
† 2. transf. To support, prop up. Obs.
1567. Studley, Seneca’s Hippolytus (1581), 61. Thunderpropping brawny shoulderd sier, That heaued and bolstred up the Welkin throne.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 118. Vnder the beginning of the duodenum is the Pancræas placed … to boulster them vp.
3. fig. To prop up, support, uphold. Also with up. In later use usually with some approach to c.
1508. Fisher, Wks. (1876), 175. Suche maner stronge and constaunt people dooth bolster and holde up bothe themselfe and other in crystes chyrche, they be lyke vnto pyllers.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 432. To upholde, fortefye and bolster the enterpryce.
1591. Troubl. Raigne K. John (1611), 46. Arthur thou seest, Fraunce cannot bolster thee.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 512. Bolstering up one another by reflexion upon their numerosity.
1813. T. Jefferson, Corr. (1830), 185. To bolster themselves up on the revered name of that first of our worthies.
b. To uphold or bear out (evil doers, illegal action, crime or error); to aid and abet, to countenance. Also with out (obs.) and up.
1523. [cf. BOLSTERER].
1549. [cf. BOLSTERING vbl. sb.]
1583. Fulke, Defence, ii. 177. You frame your translations to bolster your errors and heresies.
1612. T. James, Jesuits Downef., 29. They haue bolstred, banded, bearded, and borne out many foule matters.
1821. Hone, Facetiæ, 18. There is … not a public job that he has not bolstered; not a public knave that he has not shielded.
1530. Proper Dyaloge (1863), 3. Which … They bolstred out vnder abusyon.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, II. 18. He bolstered out a murtherer in acquiting the murtherer by vnlawful means.
1654. E. Johnson, Wonder-wrkg. Provid., 65. Yet were they boulstered out in this their wicked act by those who set them one worke.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. viii. (1634), 568, marg. To bolster up a most unlawfull power in the Church.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 12 (1619), 477. Can bolster vp their friends, children, and seruants in things worthie punishment.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., II. xviii. 193. Would in their very offices bolster up the pride of Antichrist.
1830. Arnold, Lett., in Life & Corr. (1844), I. vi. 285. I want to get up a real Poor Man’s Magazine, which should not bolster up abuses and veil iniquities.
c. Now usually (with some mixture of sense 4): To give fictitious support to (a thing unable to stand of itself). Commonly with up, rarely out.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 447. Wherewith they may bolster upp not their credytt, but their false packyng.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., i. § 3 (1643), 18. These things have … been boulstered out by Rabbinical traditions.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. Wks. (1851), 38. Bolstering, and supporting their inward rottenes by a carnal and outward strength.
1804. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., III. 275. I have done every thing in my power to bolster up the credit of the government.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., § 4. 81. What we … teach requires to be bolstered up by bounties to the taught.
4. To pad, furnish, or stuff out with padding; to puff. Also with out, up.
1530. [cf. BOLSTERING vbl. sb. 2].
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 217. That breeche was bolstred so with such brode barres.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl., Epil. They bumbast, bolster, frisle, and perfume.
1609. Man in Moone (1849), 35. A white necke, if it be not plastered; a straight backe, if it be not bolstered.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 245, ¶ 2. Three Pair of Stays, boulstered below the Left Shoulder.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. xiv. 277. For a lady to look like an hour-glass, or a huge insect, or anything else cut in two, and bolstered out at head and feet.
b. fig.
1568. Sempill Ballates (1873), 232. Bowstert with pryd.
1616. Manifest. Abp. Spalato’s Motives, 31. Their Reuenues are great, and boulstered out with secular dignities.
1826. Scott, Woodst., iii. Whose sermons were all bolstered up with … Greek and Latin.
† 5. spec. in Surg. To furnish with a pad or compress. Also fig. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 322. It will … not only require more business in bolstering it, but also put the Horse to more pain.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., 332. Thus Broken Hearts Are bolstred vp, and none can tell their Smarts.
1766. Sharp, Fractures, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 84. With the common wooden splints (properly bolstered).
6. ? intr. To lie on the same bolster.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 399. If euer mortall eyes do see them boulster, More then their owne.
7. trans. (among schoolboys): To belabor with bolsters. Cf. pillow-fight.
1871. A. R. Hope, Schoolboy Friends (1875), 287. And then they bolstered us.
† 8. To pervert, abuse, or ? suspend (laws). Obs.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 646. [They reported] how the lawes be delayed & bolstred by suche as stande in his fauoure.
1538. Starkey, England, II. iv. § 26. Materys are so borne and bolsteryd that justyce can not haue place wyth indyfferency.
