[OE. bolt (str. masc.) a crossbow bolt, cogn. with OHG. bolz, mod.G. bolz, bolzen ‘cross-bow arrow,’ also ‘bolt for a door,’ MDu. and Du. bout, MLG. bolte, bolten bolt, fetter, piece of linen rolled up. The remoter etymology is unknown; but it cannot be referred to the verb stem bul- to swell, be round.]
I. A projectile.
1. An arrow; especially one of the stouter and shorter kind with blunt or thickened head, called also quarrel, discharged from a cross-bow or other engine. Often fig., esp. in the proverbial phrase A fool’s bolt is soon shot, so common from the 13th to 18th c. † At first bolt: at the first go off.
a. 1000. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 508, 372. Catapultas, speru, boltas.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 54. Ȝoure bolt is sone ischote.
a. 1275. Prov. Alfred, 421, in O. E. Misc., 129. Sottis bold is sone i-scoten.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Milleres T., 78. Long as a Mast, and vprighte as a bolt.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 136. He that shett the bolt is lyke to be schent.
c. 1475. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 812. Hec sagitta, a harrow; hoc petulium, a bolt.
c. 1485. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (1885), 529. But he made to be cast boltes of wilde fyre in to the galley of the admyrall.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 75. Than wolde ye mend, as the fletcher mends his bolte.
1612. Pasquil’s Night-Cap (1877), 15. The grosser foole, the sooner shootes his bolt.
1676. ‘A. Rivetus, Jr.,’ Mr. Smirke, 5. At first bolt … he denounces sentence before inquiry.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., liii. ‘Zounds, I have done,’ said he. ‘Your bolt is soon shot, according to the old proverb,’ said she.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, II. iv. 70. Look that the cross-bowmen lack not bolts.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., viii. 129. The crossbow-men had to open the discharge of their bolts while their bow-strings were still wet from a heavy shower.
† b. Phrase. To make a shaft or a bolt of it: to risk making something or other out of it; to accept the issue whatever it may be, to run the risk, make the venture. (Cf. To make a spoon or spoil a horn.) Obs.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iv. 24. Ile make a shaft or a bolt on’t, slid, tis but venturing.
1679. Hist. Jetzer, 17. Without any regard to the Displeasure … of God [they] resolv’d to make a shaft or a bolt of it.
1687. R. L’Estrange, Answ. Dissenter, 46. One might have made a Bolt or a Shaft on’t.
2. A discharge of lightning, a thunderbolt.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii[i]. 48. How he smote their … flockes with hote thonder boltes.
1586. M. Roydon, Elegie, 178. The flame and bolt togither shut With privie force burst out againe.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 491. That they shall fear we have disarmd The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., XIV. 370. Then, thund’ring oft, he hurl’d into the bark His bolts.
1802. Campbell, Hohenlind. And louder than the bolts of heaven Far flashed the red artillery.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, ad fin. Scarce had she ceased, when out of heaven a bolt … struck Furrowing a giant oak.
b. fig. So in bolt from the blue: see BLUE sb. 5.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 60. The hote bolts of that thunder, euen sentences definitiue of excommunication.
1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus, viii. (1831), 70. The undistinguishing bolt of carnage.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 10. That so the Papal bolt may pass by England.
3. An elongated bullet for a rifled cannon.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 2), i. 17. In artillery practice the heat generated is usually concentrated upon the front of the bolt.
4. A cylindrical jet.
1842. H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., x. (ed. 2), 216. A bolt of water … came rushing after like the jet of a fountain.
1884. Public Opinion, 11 July, 47/1. The blowers skilfully gather the molten bolts of glass from the pots and blow huge cylinders.
II. A stout pin for fastening.
5. An appliance for fastening a door, consisting of a cylindrical (or otherwise-shaped) piece of iron, etc., moving longitudinally through staples or guides on the door, so that its end can be shot or pushed into a socket in the door-post or lintel.
b. That part of a lock which springs out and enters the staple or ‘keeper’ made for its reception.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10463. Þai … Barrit hom full bigly with boltes of yerne.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 155. To bye lokkys and boltys ffor my lorddys schambre.
1570. Levins, Manip., 218. Ye Boult of a doore, pessulus.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xx. Wks. (1851), 118. Forc’t Vertue is as a bolt overshot; it goes neither forward nor backward.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. vii. § 8. In a Lock—The Bolt or Shoot … The Staples, those as holds the Bolt to the Plate.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Bolt of a lock is the piece of iron which entering the staple, fastens the door.
1815. Scott, Ld. of Isles, V. iii. How came it here through bolt and bar.
† 6. An iron for fastening the leg, a fetter. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 192/1. Delyuerd of theyr irons, as guyues, boltes, and other.
1530. Palsgr., 199/2. Bolte or shacle, entraue.
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., I. i. ad fin. He shall to prison, and there die in bolts.
1592. Greene, Art Conny catch., II. 31. Clap a strong paire of bolts on his heeles.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., I. iv. 128. Some wore iron upon their skin and bolts upon their legs.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. vii. § 86. Prison-shackles or Prisoners Bolts; they are Irons fastned about the Legs of Prisoners.
7. A stout metal pin with a head, used for holding things fast together. It may be permanently fixed, secured by riveting or by a nut, as the bolts of a ship; or movable, passing through a hole, as the bolts of a shutter.
The bolts in ships, gun-carriages, etc., have various names according to their nature, purpose, or position, as clinch-bolts, ring-bolts, set-bolts; bed-bolts, eye-bolts, etc. See CLINCH, RING, etc.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 10. Bindings, knees, boults, trunions. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., ii. 5. Set bolts for forcing the workes and plankes together.
1672. Compl. Gunner, vi. 7. For fear any Bolts should give way or draw.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), I. iv. b, Breeching-bolts, with rings, through which the breechings pass.
1793. Gentl. Mag., April, 344. A machine for driving bolts … into ships.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 103. The common bolt, which receives a screwed nut at the bottom.
1850. Layard, Nineveh, xiii. 344. Holes for bolts exist in many of the slabs.
III. Transferred uses.
8. A roll of woven fabric: generally of a definite length; being, in various cases, 30 yards, 28 ells, or 40 feet.
1407. Will of Wollebergh (Somerset Ho.). Lego Isabelle Wollebergh … iiij boltes de Worstede.
1592. Greene, Art Conny catch., Q. 22. A boult of Saten, veluet, or any such commoditie.
a. 1600. Custom Duties, Add. MS. 25097. Poldavies, the bolte, containing xxx yards, xxs.
1638. T. Verney, in Verney Papers, 20 May, 197. Fouer bolts of canvas to send cotton home in.
1721. Bailey, Bolt of Canvas, a piece containing 28 ells.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1863), 18. Stiff and upright like a bolt of canvass on end.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 52. Canvas is made in lengths of 40 feet, called bolts.
Mod. Sc. How many bowts of tape?
9. A bundle (of osiers, etc.) of a certain size; a bundle of reeds, 3 ft. in circumference.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Ozier, Such as are for white work being made up into Bolts as they call them.
1863. Morton, Cycl. Agric. (E. D. S.), Bolt, or Boult, of oziers. (Berks.), a bundle, measuring 42 inches round, 14 inches from the butts. (Ess.), a bundle, of which 80 make a load. (Hants.), 42 inches round at the lower band.
1879. Standard, 17 April, 8/4. To Rod Dealers, Basket Makers … 25 scores bolts of fine, well-grown, clean, Green Willow Rods.
10. Wood, in special size for cleaving into laths.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. iii. § 50. Boults, the sawed piecces into lengths, out of which Laths or Latts are cloven.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bolts in carpentry denote pieces of wood cleft with wedges in order to be split into laths.
11. (See quots.)
1875. Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bolts, narrow passages or archways between houses; hiding-holes. In our former-day writings, the word applies to trenches or gutters.
1880. Cornwall Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bolt, a stone-built drain.
1884. Local Govt. Chron., 8 March, 191. A Local Board found it necessary, for the purpose of taking away the waste water, etc. of a village, to construct a covered bolt across a garden. The house … stands immediately over this bolt.
12. Bookbinding. The fold at the top and front edge of a folded sheet.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 423. Those leaves which present a double or quadruple fold, technically termed ‘the bolt.’
13. An obsolete or local name for some plants. a. The Globe-flower, Trollius (Gerard, Appendix, 1597), and Marsh Marigold. b. Species of Buttercup (Parkinson, Theatr. Bot., 1640).
IV. Attrib. and Comb.
14. attrib. quasi-adj. Bolt-like, bolt-shaped.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, II. VIII. v. 368. The smallest had a little bolt head covered with woolly brown hair.
15. Comb., as bolt-auger, -extractor, -header, -maker, -making, etc.; bolt-like, -shaped adjs.; also † bolt-bag, a quiver for bolts; † bolt-boat, old term for a boat that makes good weather in a rough sea (Smyth, Sailor’s Wd.-bk.); bolt-chisel, a cold chisel for cutting bolts; bolt-cutter, one who cuts bolts; a machine for cutting bolts, or threads on bolts; † bolt-glass, ? = BOLT-HEAD 2; bolt-hole, a hole through which a bolt passes; bolt-iron, round bar iron; † bolt’s-shoot, the distance to which a bolt can be shot (cf. stone’s throw, bow shot); bolt-strake (Naut.), certain strakes of plank that the beam fastenings pass through (Smyth, Sailor’s Wd.-bk.); bolt-threader, a machine for cutting screw-threads on bolts. BOLT-HEAD, -ROPE. Bolt-upright; see BOLT adv.
1562. Phaër, Æneid, IX. C c iij. Ratling noyse of *boltbag fine.
1883. Phil Robinson, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 440/1. The eagle … is not the natural foe of serpents nor the *bolt-bearer of the gods.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., II. 44. Pour that which you haue … into a *bolt glasse, hauing a long steale.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 45. To Plugg up the *bolt-holes.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 147. The *Bolt iron composing the chain had been … five eighths of an inch in diameter.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 336. About a *Bolts-shoot off, on the other side the hedge.
