subs. (American).—A hoisting; a shove; a lift; a push up—a New England vulgarism. As verb = to hoist; to lift up; to shove.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, xcvi. [Office seekers] ask you to give them a BOOST into the tree of office. Ibid. [BARTLETT]. It is just as difficult to BOOST a sinner up to heaven without corresponding effort on his part, as it would be for a child to shoulder a sack of Turk’s Island salt.
1847. J. M. FIELD, The Drama in Pokerville, 117. He … clambering back into the box [in the theatre], and the sanctimonious manager assisting to ‘BOOST him’ with the most friendly solicitude.
1860. New York Herald [BARTLETT]. Lord Palmerston was BOOSTED into power by the agricultural interests of England.
1859. T. A. RICHARDS, The Rice Lands of the South, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Nov., No. CXIV., Vol. XIX. For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was bound to see de Lord for sure, dough he had to climb up de tree to do it…. Did he wait to be BOOSTED? Ah no, my bredderen! not a BOOST, ah! He climbed right straight up de tree hisself.
1888. Puck’s Library, May, 11. A genius took hold of the business, and gave it a little BOOST.
1848–64. J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, II., 106. Whereas ole Abe ’ud sink afore he ’d let a darkie BOOST him.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, vii. You ought to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go … BOOSTING up the sand like a whirl-wind!
1884. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Aug., 481, 1. To BOOST a jurist of so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 25. The old General … remarked as he dropped in an extra blue chip: ‘As you all seem to be in a raising mood I’ll BOOST her myself.’ To make a long story short, they kept BOOSTING each other for a long time.
