boot

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
boot1

▶noun

• 1 a sturdy item of footwear covering the foot and ankle, and sometimes the lower leg.

• 2 informal a hard kick.

• 3 Brit. a space at the back of a car for carrying luggage.

• 4 historical an instrument of torture for crushing the foot.

▶verb

• 1 kick hard.

• 2 (boot someone out) informal force someone to leave unceremoniously.

• 3 start (a computer) and put it into a state of readiness for operation.

  ■ [from bootstrap.]

– phrases
the boot (or N. Amer. shoe) is on the other foot the situation has reversed.

die with one's boots on die in battle or while actively occupied.
give (or get) the boot informal dismiss (or be dismissed) from a job.
old boot informal an ugly or disliked old woman.
put the boot in Brit. informal kick or attack someone when they are already on the ground.

– derivatives
bootable adjective,
booted adjective.

– origin ME: from ON bóti or its source, OFr. bote.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
boot2

▶noun (in phr. to boot) as well.

– origin OE bōt ‘advantage, remedy’, of Gmc origin.