Forms: 3 bulten, 3–4 bult (3rd sing. pa. t.), 5 bult, 6 bolte, Sc. bowt, 6–7 boult, 7 bowlt, 8 Sc. bout, 4– bolt. [f. BOLT sb.1 in its two main senses of ‘a missile’ and ‘a fastening’: the former has given rise to uses of the most diverse kinds, connected merely by the common notion of sudden or hasty motion or application of force, some of them being directly contrary to others: cf. ‘to bolt a dart’ 4 a, ‘bolt a cony’ 4 b, ‘bolt a paraphrase’ 5. ‘bolt an egg,’ ‘bolt the bill’ 6, ‘bolt the ticket’ 7, besides ‘bolt the door’ 9, ‘bolt a ship’ 10.]
I. To spring, move suddenly, with its causal.
* intr. To go off like a bolt.
† 1. To start, spring. Obs.
† a. To spring back, rebound, recoil; to fall violently backward. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 366. Hit pulteð up [v.r. hit bultes] aȝean o þeo þet þer neih stondeð.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7476. Both went backward & bult vppon the erthe.
† b. To spring or start; esp. with up, upright. Obs. or arch.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. viii. 162. Suddanly He boltyd up welle nere-hand þame by Wyth twelf displayed Baneris.
1483. Cath. Angl., 36. To Bolt up, emergere.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 74. They shall not be able to rise or bolt vp againe.
1621. Quarles, Esther (1638), 90. What made … thy haire Bolt up?
a. 1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 199. The patient, bolting upright in the bed, collared each of these assistants with the grasp of Hercules.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. x. Screaming with agony and fright, He bolted twenty feet upright.
2. To move or come as with a spring or sudden bound, to dart.
a. To come or spring suddenly upon (obs.); to enter with a spring or sudden bound in, into.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 20 Feb. Bolting into the dining-room, I there found Captain Ferrers.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Ab., ¶ 143. Suddenly this sentence bolted in upon me.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 91, ¶ 1. Who came privately in a Chair, and bolted into my Room.
1779. Johnson, Lett., 225, II. 96. I think to bolt upon you at Bath.
1839. De Quincey, Murder, Wks. IV. 72. In therefore he bolted and … turned the key.
1840. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), V. 92. Men were bolting in a hurry out of one religious tyranny, and it was not so wonderful they should bolt into another.
b. To dart forth, forward, out. (Often with the idea of start running, as in 3.)
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. vi. 58. Furth bowtis with a bend Nisus.
1550. Lyndesay, Sqr. Meldrum, 519. [He] bowtit fordward with ane bend.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 92. Bolting out of Bushes in the dark.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., Ded. (1721), I. 188. Some bolting out upon the Stage with vast applause.
a. 1779. Garrick, Lying Valet, I. Wks. 1798, I. 42. Out bolts her husband upon me with a fine taper crab in his hand.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., viii. 259. With … a furious growl, forth he bolted from the bush.
3. To dart off or away, make off with himself, take flight, escape; to rush suddenly off or away.
a. gen. of men or beasts.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Philast., II. ii. Here’s one bolted; I’ll hound at her.
1616. Fletcher, Hum. Lieut., IV. viii. 142. He will bolt now for certain.
1838. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-bks. (1871), I. 156. The landlord of the tavern keeping his eye on a man whom he suspected of an intention to bolt.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., iii. At once bolting off in cabs.
1879. F. Pollok, Sport. Brit. Burmah, II. 94. The rhinoceros bolted, and I got two shots as it crossed an open piece.
b. spec. Of a horse: To break away from the rider’s control; to make a violent dash out of his course.
1820. Scott, Monast., v. The mule … bounded, bolted, and would soon have thrown Father Philip over her head.
1877. A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, xxii. 683. My donkey bolted about every five minutes.
1884. E. L. Anderson, Mod. Horsemanship, I. viii. 44. Bolting is the quick, determined movement, usually off the course and often against some obstacle, that a horse makes to break away from restraint.
c. transf. To break away from a political party. (U.S. politics.) Cf. 7.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 11 July (heading), Belief that Butler and Tammany will bolt.
** trans. To send off like a bolt.
4. To let off or discharge like a bolt; to shoot.
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 2226. Disceyte … Bultethe out shame, and causethe grete smertnesse.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 439. A frivolous devise boulted out of the forgeshoppe of Lumbarde.
1618. Barnevelt’s Apol., C. Against your woundless brest he bolts his dart in vaine.
1648. Markham, Housew. Gard., III. viii. (1668), 71. One of these seeds put into the eye … will … bolt itself forth without hurt to the eye.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 169. Some may have been bolted off by the shock of an earthquake.
b. To drive out suddenly or forcibly; to expel.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xiv. (1660), 166. You shall say Bowlt the Cony.
1612. Beaum. & Fl., Cupid’s Rev., Wks. III. 415. This is one of her Ferrets that she bolts business out withall.
1622. Fletcher, Span. Curate, V. ii. 48. All your devills wee will bolt.
1805. Wordsw., Prel., III. 77. To have been bolted forth, Thrust out abruptly into Fortune’s way.
c. To bolt upright: to cause to stand on end.
1794. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. Bruce, Wks. II. 463. Tales … That bolt like hedge-hog-quills the hair upright.
5. To utter hastily, ejaculate, blurt out or forth.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 392. He bolted out such rash and vnadvised sayings.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 123. Mahomet-Ally-Beg undesired, bolted out, that hee knew, [etc.].
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., 347. The Rudest Head will bolt a Paraphrase.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Antiq., XVI. vi. (1733), 431. The Princes … bolted out at a Venture, whatever came at their Tongue’s End.
1821. Coleridge, Lett., Convers., &c. xv. I. 161. What we struggle with inwardly, we find … easiest to bolt out.
6. colloq. To swallow hastily and without chewing, swallow whole or with a single effort, gulp down.
1794. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Path. Odes, Wks. III. 401. Bolting his subjects with majestic gobble.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxviii. He … bolted the alcohol, to use the learned phrase, and withdrew.
1835. Marryat, Pacha, ix. Bolting them down to satisfy the cravings of … hunger.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xi. 362. Some hawks and owls bolt their prey whole.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 June, 3/1. It would be much simpler for the House of Commons to bolt the bill whole.
*** trans. development of 3, 3 b, c.
7. To break away from (a political party or platform to which one has hitherto docilely adhered); = bolt from in sense 3. (U.S. politics.)
1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 11 July. It is believed that Butler and Tammany will bolt the ticket.
1884. Chicago Daily Tribune, 17 July, 3/6. A long list of prominent Irish citizens who have bolted Cleveland for Blaine.
1885. Howells, in Harper’s Mag., July, 262/1. The Democrat-Republican … bolted the nomination of a certain politician of its party for Congress.
II. To make fast or confine with a bolt.
† 8. trans. To fetter, shackle; also fig. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VI. 138. If he be … bolted with yrnes.
a. 1535. More, Wks. (1557), 1246. He bolteth their armns with a paulsy, that they cannot lift their hands to their heads.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 6. That thing … Which shackles accedents, and bolts vp change.
9. trans. To secure (a door, etc.) with a bolt.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 906. The olde woman bolted the dore.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xiii. 17. Put now this woman out from mee, and bolt the doore after her.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., 439. You haue obstinately bolted your heart against all these pious stories.
1720. T. Boston, Hum. Nat. (1794), 142. Labouring to enter into heaven by the door, which Adam’s sin … bolted.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xiii. 147. The kitchen door, which he locked and bolted.
b. To bolt out, in, up: to exclude, shut in, shut up, by bolting a door, etc. Also fig.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 32. Yee grace barre out, and vanitie bolt in.
1691. E. Taylor, Behmen’s Incarn., 330. The Divine Substantiality did sit bolted up therein.
1839. Bailey, Festus, v. Where God is bolted out from every house.
10. To fasten together or furnish with bolts.
1727–38. Chambers, Cycl., I. s.v. Keel, Into this are … the ground-timbers and hooks fastened, and bolted.
1780. Burke, Sp. Bristol, Wks. III. 419. The … fabrick … is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
1787. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), I. 207. I have ordered her [a ship] to be new bolted.
1824. Ure, Dict. Chem., 9. A disc of cast-iron well fitted and firmly bolted to it.
1875. McLaren, Serm., Ser. II. iii. 55. A strong shaft of iron bolting together the two tottering walls of some old building.
