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Bolt

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An arrow, a shaft (Anglo-Saxon, bolta; Danish, bolt; Greek, ballo, to cast; Latin, pello, to drive). A door bolt is a shaft of wood or iron, which may be shot or driven forward to secure a door. A thunderbolt is an hypothetical shaft cast from the elouds; an aerolite. Cupid’s bolt is Cupid’s arrow.

The fool’s bolt is soon spent. A foolish archer shoots all his arrows so heedlessly that he leaves himself no resources in case of need.

I must bolt. Be off like an arrow.

To bolt food. To swallow it quickly without waiting to chew it.

To bolt out the truth. To blurt it out; also To bolt out, to exclude or shut out by bolting the door.

To bolt. To sift, as flour is bolted. This has a different derivation to the above (Low Latin, bult-ella, a boulter, from an Old French word for coarse cloth).

“I cannot bolt this matter to the bran,

As Bradwarden and holy Austin can.”


Dryden’s version of the Cock and Fox.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Boisserean Collection
Bolay or Boley
Bold
Bolerium Promontory
Bolero
Bolingbroke
Bollandists
Bollen
Bologna Stone
Bolognese School
Bolt
Bolt from the Blue (A)
Bolt in Tun
Bolt Upright
Bolted
Bolted Arrow
Bolton
Bolus
Bomb
Bomba
Bombast