bolt

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bolt1

▶noun

• 1 a long pin with a head that screws into a nut, used to fasten things together.

  ■ a bar that slides into a socket to fasten a door or window.

  ■ the sliding piece of the breech mechanism of a rifle.

• 2 a short, heavy arrow shot from a crossbow.

• 3 a flash of lightning across the sky.

▶verb fasten with a bolt.

– phrases
a bolt from (or out of) the blue a sudden and unexpected event.
bolt upright with the back very straight.
have shot one's bolt informal have done everything possible but still not succeeded.

– origin OE: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bolt2

▶verb

• 1 run away suddenly.

  ■ (in hunting) cause (a rabbit or fox) to run out of its burrow or hole.

• 2 (of a plant) grow quickly upwards and stop flowering as seeds develop.

• 3 eat (food) quickly.

– phrases
make a bolt for try to escape by running suddenly towards.

– derivatives
bolter noun.

– origin ME: from bolt1, expressing the sense ‘fly like an arrow’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bolt3

▶noun

• 1 a roll of fabric, originally as a measure.

• 2 a folded edge of a piece of paper that is trimmed off to allow it to be opened.

– origin ME: transferred use of bolt1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bolt4 (also boult)

▶verb archaic pass through a sieve.

– origin ME: from OFr. bulter.