Forms: 2–3 (Orm.) bullt, 4–6 bult(e, 6 boulte, bowlt, boolt, 5–8 boult, 6– bolt. north. 5–6 bowt, 6 bout. [a. OF. bulte-r (now bluter):—earlier OF. buleter, which (as appears from OF. buretel boultel, meal-sieve = mod.F. bluteau) is for *bureter = It. burattare; no OF. *buret is recorded, but It. buratto is a meal-sieve, and also ‘a fine transparent cloth.’ Diez and Littré refer it originally to bura, bure, a kind of cloth: see BUREAU, BURRELL. The historical spelling of the word is boult: unfortunately the dictionaries have confounded it with BOLT v.2 (see Johnson) and authorized the spelling bolt: cf. BOULTEL.]
1. trans. To sift; to pass through a sieve or bolting-cloth. To bolt out: to separate by sifting.
c. 1200. [see BOLTED1].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxvii. The floure of þe mele, whan it is bultid [1535 boulted] and departid from þe bran.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 51. Fancy may boult bran, and make ye take it floure.
1617. Markham, Caval., III. 38. Grinde all these together, and boult them through an ordinarie bolting cloath.
1633. Gerard’s Herbal, II. cccxl. 912. Pouder of the roots … searced or bolted into most fine dust.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XX. 134. To bolt the bran From the pure flour.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., I. ii. 77. Flour has the bran bolted from it.
b. transf. and fig.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. ii. 137. Such and so finely boulted didst thou seeme. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., IV. iv. 375. The fan’d snow, that’s bolted By th’ Northerne blasts.
2. fig. To examine by sifting; to search and try. To bolt out: to find out, or separate by sifting.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nonne Prestes T., 420. I ne kan nat bulte it to the bren.
1544. Ascham, Toxoph., I. 97. You Persians for your great wisdom can soon bolt out what they mean.
1553. Q. Mary, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xiv. 35. Wherby ye may the better bulte out the malicious.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 375. Neither may I … boult out the whole Etymologie (or reason) of every Townes name.
1640–4. Sir B. Rudyard, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 25. Let the matters bolt out the Men; their Actions discover them.
1791. Burke, Let. Memb. Nat. Assemb., Wks. VI. 49. I must first bolt myself before I can censure them.
[1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. 923. The curious few Who care to sift a business to the bran Nor coarsely bolt it like the simpler sort.]
