boot

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Protective footgear, as of leather or rubber, covering the foot and part or all of the leg.
2. n. A protective covering, especially a sheath to enclose the base of a floor-mounted gear shift lever in a car or truck.
3. n. Chiefly British An automobile trunk.
4. n. A kick.
5. n. Slang An unceremonious dismissal, as from a job. Used with the.
6. n. Slang A swift, pleasurable feeling; a thrill.
7. n. A Denver boot.
8. n. A marine or navy recruit in basic training.
9. n. Computer Science The process of starting or restarting a computer.
10. n. An instrument of torture, used to crush the foot and leg.
11. v. To put boots on.
12. v. To kick.
13. v. Slang To discharge unceremoniously. See Synonyms at dismiss.
14. v. Computer Science To start (a computer) by loading an operating system from a disk.
15. v. To disable (a vehicle) by attaching a Denver boot.
16. v. Baseball To misplay (a ground ball).
17. v. To be of help or advantage; avail.
18. n. Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S. See lagniappe.
19. n. Archaic Advantage; avail.
20. idiom. to boot In addition; besides: Not only was the new cruise ship the biggest in the world, but the fastest to boot.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Profit; gain; advantage.
2. n. Something which is thrown in by one of the parties to a bargain as an additional consideration, or to make the exchange equal.
3. n. Help or deliverance; assistance; relief; remedy: as, boot for every bale.
4. n. Resource; alternative.
5. To profit; advantage; avail: now only used impersonally: as, it boots us little.
6. To present into the bargain; enrich; benefit.
7. n. A covering (usually of leather) for the foot and lower part of the leg, reaching as far up as the middle of the calf, and sometimes to the knee. In most styles the leg part keeps its place by its stiffness alone, although in certain fashions it has been laced around the calf. Boots seem to have appeared in Europe about the middle of the fifteenth century. They were not much worn at first, because persons of the wealthier classes, when abroad, were generally clad in armor. At the time of the gradual disappearance of armor very high boots of thick leather came into favor as covering for the legs, and by the sixteenth century they were already in common use. (See jack-boot.) Late in the eighteenth century boots became a usual part of elegant costume, and were made lighter and more close-fitting. In England boots ceased to be common in elegant costume as early as 1855, and about fifteen years later they began to disappear in the United States; but they are still worn for special purposes and occupations, as by horsemen, seamen, etc.
8. n. Hence In modern usage, also, any shoe or outer foot-covering which reaches above the ankle, whether for men or women: more properly called half-boot or ankle-boot.
9. n. An instrument of torture made of iron, or a combination of iron and wood, fastened on the leg, between which and the boot wedges were introduced and driven in by repeated blows of a mallet, with such violence as to crush both muscles and bones. The boots and thumb-screw were the special Scotch instruments for “putting to the question.” A much milder variety consisted of a boot or buskin, made wet and drawn upon the legs and then dried by heat, so as to contract and squeeze the legs.
10. n. A protective covering for a horse's foot.
11. n. In the seventeenth century, a drinking-vessel: from the use of leathern jacks to drink from.
12. n. In ornithology, a continuous or entire tarsal envelop, formed by fusion of the tarsal scutella. It occurs chiefly in birds of the thrush and warbler groups. See cut under booted.
13. n. The fixed step on each side of a coach.
14. n. An uncovered space on or by the steps on each side of a coach, allotted to the servants and attendants; later, a low outside compartment, either between the coachman's box and the body of the coach or at the rear.
15. n. A receptacle for baggage in a coach, either under the seat of the coachman or under that of the guard, or, as in American stage-coaches, behind the body of the coach, covered by a flap of leather.
16. n. A leather apron attached to the dashboard of an open carriage and designed to be used as a protection from rain or mud.
17. To put boots on.
18. To torture with the boot.
19. To kick; drive by kicking: as, boot him out of the room.
20. To beat, formerly with a long jack-boot, now with a leather surcingle or waist-belt: an irregular conventional punishment inflicted by soldiers on a comrade guilty of dishonesty or shirking duty.
21. n. Booty; spoil; plunder.
22. n. Obsolete preterit of bite.
23. n. In agriculture, the uppermost leaf-sheath, just below the brush or head, of a broom-corn plant; also the lowest leaf-bearing internode on a stalk of wheat.

Wiktionary

1. n. A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.
2. n. A blow with the foot; a kick.
3. n. construction A flexible cover of rubber or plastic, which may be preformed to a particular shape and used to protect a shaft, lever, switch, or opening from dust, dirt, moisture, etc.
4. n. A torture device used on the feet or legs, such as a Spanish boot.
5. n. US A parking enforcement device used to immobilize a car until it can be towed or a fine is paid; a wheel clamp.
6. n. A rubber bladder on the leading edge of an aircraft’s wing, which is inflated periodically to remove ice buildup. A deicing boot.
7. n. obsolete A place at the side of a coach, where attendants rode; also, a low outside place before and behind the body of the coach.
8. n. archaic A place for baggage at either end of an old-fashioned stagecoach.
9. n. Australia, UK, New Zealand, automotive The luggage storage compartment of a sedan or saloon car.
10. n. computing, informal The act or process of removing somebody from a chat room.
11. n. UK, slang unattractive person, ugly woman
12. v. To kick.
13. v. To apply corporal punishment (compare slippering).
14. v. informal To forcibly eject.
15. v. slang To vomit.
16. v. computing, informal To disconnect forcibly; to eject from an online service, conversation, etc.
17. n. dated remedy, amends
18. n. uncountable profit, plunder
19. v. transitive to profit, avail, benefit
20. n. computing The act or process of bootstrapping; the starting or re-starting of a computing device.
21. v. computing To bootstrap; to start a system, eg. a computer, by invoking its boot process or bootstrap.
22. n. A bootleg recording.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Remedy; relief; amends; reparation; hence, one who brings relief.
2. n. That which is given to make an exchange equal, or to make up for the deficiency of value in one of the things exchanged.
3. n. obsolete Profit; gain; advantage; use.
4. v. To profit; to advantage; to avail; -- generally followed by it; as, what boots it?
5. v. obsolete To enrich; to benefit; to give in addition.
6. n. A covering for the foot and lower part of the leg, ordinarily made of leather.
7. n. An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to extort confessions, particularly in Scotland.
8. n. obsolete A place at the side of a coach, where attendants rode; also, a low outside place before and behind the body of the coach.
9. n. A place for baggage at either end of an old-fashioned stagecoach.
10. n. An apron or cover (of leather or rubber cloth) for the driving seat of a vehicle, to protect from rain and mud.
11. n. (Plumbing) The metal casing and flange fitted about a pipe where it passes through a roof.
12. v. To put boots on, esp. for riding.
13. v. United States To punish by kicking with a booted foot.
14. v. To boot one's self; to put on one's boots.
15. n. Obs. or R. Booty; spoil.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an instrument of torture that is used to heat or crush the foot and leg
2. n. footwear that covers the whole foot and lower leg
3. n. the act of delivering a blow with the foot
4. n. a form of foot torture in which the feet are encased in iron and slowly crushed
5. n. British term for the luggage compartment in a car
6. v. kick; give a boot to
7. n. protective casing for something that resembles a leg
8. v. cause to load (an operating system) and start the initial processes
9. n. the swift release of a store of affective force