bolt

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To run away or move suddenly and quickly.

   The horse bolted when it heard the gunshot.

2. 2
   verb

   To lock a door or window with a metal bar.

   She bolted the door before going to bed.

3. 3
   verb

   To eat very quickly without chewing properly.

   Don't bolt your food or you'll get a stomachache.

4. 4
   noun

   A metal bar that slides across to lock a door.

   He slid the bolt across to secure the gate.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bolt meant “arrow” in Old English. The verb senses “start or spring suddenly” and later “run off,” especially of a horse, developed from the speed of an arrow, and this also underlies bolt upright. In bolt from the blue, however, the bolt is a thunderbolt rather than an arrow.

From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti. The association of thunder and lightning with 'bolts' is found back into prehistory in many cultures, at least in Eurasia. It comes from the long-standing widespread belief that lightning was caused by bolts, darts, or stones hurtling down from the sky to…

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External links

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