- a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.
- a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something: He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
- relying entirely on one's efforts and resources: The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.
- self-generating or self-sustaining: a bootstrap process.
- boot1 (defs. 21, 26).
- to help (oneself) without the aid of others: She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.
- to help oneself without the aid of others; use one's resources: I admire him for pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.
- a leather or fabric loop on the back or side of a boot for pulling it on
- by one's own efforts; unaided
- self-acting or self-sufficient, as an electronic amplifier that uses its output voltage to bias its input
- a technique for loading the first few program instructions into a computer main store to enable the rest of the program to be introduced from an input device
- (as modifier)
- an offer to purchase a controlling interest in a company, esp with the intention of purchasing the remainder of the equity at a lower price
- to set up or achieve (something) using minimal resources
- to attach (something) to a larger or more important thing
