Meaning

6 senses
  1. To help (oneself) without the aid of others.

    Sam spent years bootstrapping himself through college.

    sich selbst helfen, auf sich selbst gestellt sein, selbstständig sein

    help oneself, often through improvised means

  2. To load the operating system into the memory of a computer. Usually shortened to boot.

  3. To compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of a system or program.

  4. (broadly)To build or put together (something) by first building or putting together the tools, building blocks, ideas, etc., necessary to build (the thing).

  5. To employ a bootstrap method.

  6. To expand or advance an activity or a collection based solely on previous actions, work, findings, etc.

Examples

7 sentences
  1. Tom pulled himself up by his bootstraps.

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  2. This "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" concept is not universal.

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  3. I'd pull myself up by my bootstraps, but somebody stole them.

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  4. My father tells me to pull myself up by my bootstraps.

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  5. I'd pull myself up by my bootstraps, but I don't have any.

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Translations

4 languages
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to help (oneself) without the aid of others:

Origin

From boot + strap. The sense "pull up (without aid)" comes from the phrase pull oneself up

From boot + strap. The sense "pull up (without aid)" comes from the phrase pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

bootstraps, bootstrapping, bootstrapped, bootstrapped
Base formbootstrap · to bootstrap
3rd person singularbootstraps
Present participlebootstrapping
Past simplebootstrapped
Past participlebootstrapped

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theybootstrap
he, she, itbootstraps

Past simpleLesson

all personsbootstrapped

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave bootstrapped
he, she, ithas bootstrapped

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill bootstrap

Word family

1 related words
Relatedreboot

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
bootstrap — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto