Also 8 booterkin, 9 bootakin. [dim. of BOOT sb.3: see -KIN. Cf. mannikin.]
1. A soft boot or mitten made of wool and oiled silk, worn as a cure for the gout.
1767. H. Walpole, in N. & Q., I. I. 232/1. One day’s gout, which I cured with the bootikins. Ibid. (1775), Private Corr., 11 April, IV. 8. My biennial visitant the gout, has yielded to the bootikins.
1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), IV. 221. Booterkins made with oiled Silk, as they confine the perspirable matter, keep the part moist and supple.
2. A small kind of boot; a knitted legging or gaiter with feet, worn out of doors by infants.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., xiii. (1855), 122. That species of bootakin, known … by the title of ‘high-lows.’
1885. Civ. Serv. Store Price List, 160. Infantees, Bootakins, Gaiters, Wool Boots.
3. An instrument of torture; = BOOT sb.3 3.
1727. P. Walker, A. Peden, 26 (Jam.). There will neither thumbikin nor bootikin come here.
1834. M. Napier, Mem. Napier of Merchiston, iv. 159. It was proposed to put him in the bootikins, an infernal instrument of torture.
