Bolster
['bəʊlstə] or ['bolstɚ]
Definition
(noun.) a pillow that is often put across a bed underneath the regular pillows.
(verb.) support and strengthen; 'bolster morale'.
(verb.) prop up with a pillow or bolster.
Edited by Annabel--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A long pillow or cushion, used to support the head of a person lying on a bed; -- generally laid under the pillows.
(n.) A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support any part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
(n.) Anything arranged to act as a support, as in various forms of mechanism, etc.
(n.) A cushioned or a piece part of a saddle.
(n.) A cushioned or a piece of soft wood covered with tarred canvas, placed on the trestletrees and against the mast, for the collars of the shrouds to rest on, to prevent chafing.
(n.) Anything used to prevent chafing.
(n.) A plate of iron or a mass of wood under the end of a bridge girder, to keep the girder from resting directly on the abutment.
(n.) A transverse bar above the axle of a wagon, on which the bed or body rests.
(n.) The crossbeam forming the bearing piece of the body of a railway car; the central and principal cross beam of a car truck.
(n.) the perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
(n.) That part of a knife blade which abuts upon the end of the handle.
(n.) The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
(n.) The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
(n.) A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
(v. t.) To support with a bolster or pillow.
(v. t.) To support, hold up, or maintain with difficulty or unusual effort; -- often with up.
Typist: Mag
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Support, prop, help, {[id]?}, sustain, subsidize, patch, tinker, buoy
ANT:Depress, dispirit, relax
Edited by Francine
Definition
n. a long round pillow or cushion: a pad: anything resembling it in form or use esp. any piece of mechanism affording a support against pressure.—v.t. to support with a bolster: to hold up.—p.adj. Bol′stered supported: swelled out.—n. Bol′stering a propping up or supporting.
Checker: Valerie
Examples
- Jean-Jacques is in fact a supreme case--perhaps even a slight caricature--of the way in which formal creeds bolster up passionate wants. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Well, now, the under sheet you must bring over the bolster,--so--and tuck it clear down under the mattress nice and smooth,--so,--do you see? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The bolster is an upright sleeve bearing, in which the spindle revolves, and against which is sustained the pull of the band that drives the spindle. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The long nun proved a long bolster dressed in a long black stole, and artfully invested with a white veil. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- This result was accomplished by making a yielding bolster. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- By making this bolster or sleeve bearing to yield laterally by means of an elastic packing which surrounds it, a much greater freedom and speed of revolution were obtained. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- And we bolster up our satisfaction by pointing to some mistake of logic or some puerility of statement. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Inputed by Edgar