Forms: 4–6 bote, 4–7 boote, 7– boot. (Also 4–7 north. bute, 5 but, 6 botte, bowtt, 6–7 Sc. buitt.) [ME. bote, a. OF. bote (mod.F. botte), corresp. to Pr., Sp., Pg. bota, med.L. botta, bota, of uncertain origin.
Identified by Diez, Littré, etc., with F. boute (also, in mod.F., botte) butt, cask, leather vessel; but ‘the phonology of the two words in OF. shows that they are quite distinct’ (P. Meyer). In med.L. also butta ‘butt’ and botta ‘boot’ are never confounded, though bota is frequent as a by-form of both, which has probably misled etymologists.]
1. A covering for the foot and lower part of the leg, usually of leather. (Distinguished from a SHOE by extending above the ankle. In earlier times used only by riders: see quot. from Johnson.)
c. 1325. Poem temp. Edw. II., 26. Felted botys. Ibid., 55. Tho his botes be all totore.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 273. His bootes [v.r. botis, -es] clasped faire and fetisly.
1483. Cath. Angl., 49. A Bute [v.r. Buyt] of ledir or wandis.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iii. 140. Get on thy Boots, wee’l ride all night.
1746. Rep. Cond. Sir J. Cope (1749), App. 10. This Morning Lord President called upon me in his Boots, on his Way Northward.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Boot … a covering for the leg, used by horsemen.
1832. Sarah Austin, trans. Tour Germ. Prince, II. iii. 38. A plain farmer, in marsh-boots and waterproof cloak, standing in the rain directing his labourers.
1835. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 491. My little kid-boots were sadly stain’d.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 18. 131. It is more difficult to fix the heel of the boot than the toe securely in the ice.
b. Phrases. † To make one boot serve for either leg (see quot.) † The boot is on the other leg: the case is altered, the responsibility is on the other party. To have (wish obs.) one’s heart in one’s boots: to be in a state of extreme fear (a ludicrous extension of ‘the heart sinks’). † Over shoes, over boots: expressing reckless continuance in a course already begun. Boot and saddle (perversion of F. boute-selle ‘place saddle’; see BOUTE-SELLE], the signal to cavalry for mounting: Like old boots (slang): vigorously, thoroughgoingly.
1533. More, Debell. Salem, Wks. 980/2. That their wordes should haue twoo senses, and one boote serue for either legge.
1642. Lords’ Jrnls., in Rushw. IV. 559 b. Edward Sanderford … said … that the Earl of Warwick was a Traytor, and wished his Heart in his Bools.
1648. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), II. 248. Over shoes, over boots; I know God will never forgive me, and therefore I will never trouble my self to seek His favour … this is properly the sin of despair.
1662. H. Foulis, Hist. Wicked Plots, 67. Which so much incensed the Commons, that they (over Boots, over Shooes) fell to draw up another.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, II. To boot and saddle again they sound.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 51, ¶ 1. The Sound was chang’d to Boots and Saddle.
1856. J. Grant, Black Drag., xii. 65. Our trumpets blew ‘Boot-and-saddle’ in the streets.
1865. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, xxvii. 282. I’ll stick to you like old boots.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, I. xiii. 213. She’s as tough as old boots.
1883. T. M. Coan, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 592/2. Russell, who now felt his courage oozing out at the seams of his boots.
† 2. A piece of armor for the legs, a greave.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Sam. xvii. 6. He hadde bootis of bras in the hipis [1382 stelyn legharneis].
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 65/4. He had botes of brasse in his cartes.
1609. Bible (Douay), 1 Sam. xvii. 6. He had brassen bootes on his thighes [1611 He had greaues of brasse vpon his legs].
3. An instrument of torture formerly used in Scotland to extort confessions from prisoners.
1513–75. Diurnal Occurrents (1833), 262. Ane Minister … quha wes extramelie pynnit in the beittis lang of befoir.
1580–1. Randolph, in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), IV. 324. Being neither offered the boots, nor other kind of torment.
1618. Field, Amends for L., I. i. The rack, strapado, or the boiling boot.
1663. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 7. She is … put into the boots, and cruelly tortured, yet confesses nothing.
c. 1706. Vanbrugh, Mistake, I. i. Shall I draw him on a Scotch pair of boots, Master, and make him tell all?
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 333. They put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between these and the leg.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxvi. The executioner, whose mallet instantly descended on the wedge, and, forcing it between the knee and the iron boot, occasioned the most exquisite pain.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), II. 41. The bones of their legs were shattered in the boots.
4. Part of a coach. † a. The fixed external step of a coach (cf. Fr. botte 5 in Littré); b. An uncovered space on or by the steps on each side, where attendants sat, facing sideways; later, a low outside compartment before or behind the body of the vehicle. Obs.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn., 27. Shee sets in the boote and rides on.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., I. (1862), 7. In the boots of which coach Lechery and Sloth sit like the waiting-maid.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), in Knight, Once upon Time, I. 153. It makes people imitate sea-crabs, in being drawn sideways, as they are when they sit in the boot of the coach.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 202. If in a Coach, one side of the Boot be down, and the other up.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. xviii. 29. And with a long Knife stretch’d himself over their shoulders who were in the Boot of the Coach.
1669. Lond. Gaz., No. 421/2. 5 or 6 persons … opening the boot of his Coach discharged on him their Pistoll.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams (1693), I. 196 (D.). He received his Son into the Coach, and found a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind; as he was putting his Foot in the Boot, [etc.].
1714. Ellwood, Autobiog., 10. My Father, opening the Boot, step’t out, and I followed.
1716. T. Ward, Eng. Ref., 400.
| And then the Rogues to sally out, | |
| And charge the Coach at either Boot. |
1816. Scott, Old Mort., ii. A chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess, formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called, from its appearance, the boot.
c. The receptacle for luggage or parcels under the seats of the guard and coachman. (This appears to have been the fore and hind boot of sense b, covered in as a box, ? about the middle of the 18th c.)
1781. Westm. Mag., IX. 13/1. I begged protection of the coachman, who advised me to get into the boot of the coach.
1807. Antidote Miseries Hum. Life (1814), 29. ‘Mind that sword-case in the boot,’ cries the captain.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., iv. From the door of the hind boot of all the red coaches.
5. A protective covering for the foot and part of the leg of a horse.
1812. Specif. Purden’s Patent, No. 3542 (title), An improved Horse boot.
1884. A. E. T. Watson, in Longm. Mag., April, 610. The bright chestnut, on which the trainer himself has mounted—after seeing him carefully fitted with ‘boots,’ lest he should cut or overreach.
6. In various technical uses: a. Organ-building (see quot.). b. Metallurgy (see quot.). c. In bottling liquor: A leather case in which to put a filled bottle while corking it (cf. bottle-boot). † d. A (leather) case for a fiddle.
1594. Lyly, M. Bombie, V. iii. A bots on the shoomaker that made this boote for my fiddle, ’tis too straight.
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 139. The boot … encloses and supports the block…. The boot also conveys the wind to the speaking part or reed.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Boot, a leather or tin joint connecting the blast-main with the tuyère or nozzle in a bloomary.
7. Comb., chiefly in attrib. and objective relations: as boot-binder, -cleaning, -edge, -finisher, -garter, -heel, -holder, -lace, -leg, -maker, -making, -nail, -pattern, -seam, -sole, -sponge, -spur.
1862. Macm. Mag., May, 67. One poor old woman, a *boot-binder.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xviii. Went on with his *boot-cleaning.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, I. 326 (D.). A handsome and flourishing pair of *boot-garters.
1634. Churchw. Accts. Youlgrave, Derby, in Reliquary, Jan. (1864), 190. For a payre of *Boot-legges needfull to be used about ye bells.
1630. in Fairholt, Costume (1846), 453. To a *bootmaker for one pair of boots, white and red, 14s.
1871. E. C. G. Murray, Member for Paris, I. 279. They would have taken to *boot-making had they been born a few steps lower down the ladder.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 42. A soldier leaves his *boot-nail in my hand.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 1 (1619), 336. Though the ground in comparison be not better then a *bootshanke, as we vse to say.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxii. Clinking his *bootspurs, swaggering prodigiously.
8. Special comb.: as boot-black, a person who blacks boots, a shoe-black (chiefly U.S.); † boot-catch, boot-catcher, a servant at an inn who pulled off the guests’ boots; boot-closer, one who sews together the upper leathers of boots; boot-eater, -eating (see quot.); boot-gusset, elastic sides inserted in boots; boot-hook, a hook for pulling on boots; boot-hose = boot-stocking; boot-housing (see quot. and HOUSING); boot-jack, a contrivance for pulling off boots; † boot-ketch = boot-catcher; also = boot-jack; boot-last = boot-tree; boot-laster, ? one who makes boot-lasts; boot-lick, v. to toady; sb. a toady (U.S. slang); boot-rack, a rack or stand for holding boots; boot-shank, the piece of leather placed between the outer and the inner sole in the waist of a boot; † boot-sleeve, a wide kind of coat-sleeve; boot-stocking, an over-stocking that covers the leg like a jack-boot; boot-stretcher, -tree, a shaped block inserted into a boot to stretch it or keep it in shape. Also BOOT-TOP, BOOT-TOPPING.
1864. Sala, in Daily Tel., 25 Feb., 5/3. That negro *boot-black on the street corner.
1883. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., July, 817/1. The San Francisco boot-blacks seem quite a model to their class.
1775. Campbell, Diary Visit Eng., 221. The number of churches I could not learn from our *boot catch guide.
1745. Swift, Direct. Servants, 66 (J.). The Ostler and the *Boot-catcher, ought all by your Means to partake of your Master’s Generosity.
1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, IV. ii. There’s master, and John ostler, and bootcatcher, all gone after ’em.
1880. Pall Mall Gaz., 30 Dec., 11/1. A historic juror … is said to have given final and irresistible proof of his resolution to acquit a State defendant … by declaring that he would eat his boots before he would find the man guilty. A *‘boot-eater’ now designates a particular species of juror. Rumour says there are at least nine boot-eaters in the Parnell jury.
1882. Daily News, 4 March. A decline in the trade in *boot gussets in the elastic web manufacture.
1588. Lanc. & Ch. Wills, III. 139. One paire of tawny stockes wth toppes of *boothose of the same.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burn. Pestle, IV. ii. (D.). The maid That wash’d my boot-hose.
1815. Scott, Guy M., vii. The women spun mittens for the lady, and knitted boot-hose for the laird.
1792. Osbaldiston, Brit. Sportsman, 432. Houzing, is either *boot-houzing or shoe-houzing; the former is a piece of stuff made fast to the hinder part of the saddle.
a. 1841. T. Hook, Ramsbottom Pap., in Casquet Lit., 1877, I. 117/1. Tall men are doubled up like *boot-jacks before they can be put away at all.
1785. Mackenzie, Lounger, No. 54, ¶ 8. Sent the *boot-ketch to Hart’s for a pair of Spanish boots.
1814. Scott, Wav., xlix. I wish … I had recommended him to attend the circle this evening with a boot-ketch under his arm.
1611. Cotgr., Embouchoir, a *Boot last, or Boot tree.
1732. Fielding, Miser, I. vi. These *boot-sleeves were certainly intended to be receivers of stolen goods.
a. 1807. Bowles, Note to Banwell Hill (1828), 114 (D.). In a pair of worsted *boot-stockings, which, my father observed, would keep my under-stockings from the dirt.
1834. Southey, Doctor, lvii. (1862), 126. You will not observe his boot-stockings coming high above the knees.
1766. Croker, etc. Dict. Arts, *Boot-Tree, or Boot-Last, is a wooden cylinder slit into two parts, between which, when it is put into the boot, they drive … a wedge.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xi. Pretty boots, trimly stretched on boot-trees.
