bootstrap

plural bootstraps

1. A loop (leather or other material) sewn at the side or top rear of a boot to help in pulling the boot on.
2. figurativelyA means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something without aid.

   He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.

3. computingThe process by which the operating system of a computer is loaded into its memory.
4. computingThe process necessary to compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of the system or program.
5. mathematicsAny method or instance of estimating properties of an estimator (such as its variance) by measuring those properties when sampling from an approximating distribution.

present singular third person bootstraps · participle present bootstrapping · participle past bootstrapped · past bootstrapped

1. To help (oneself) without the aid of others.

   Sam spent years bootstrapping himself through college.

   1 more example

   I was born into that shitty town, maleness, in the remains of outdated ideals and misplaced machismo and repression and there are some good people stuck living there. They are not in charge. They did not build it. And I don’t feel okay just moving out and saying “fuck y’all — bootstrap your way out or die out, I was never one of you.” I want to make it a better, healthier place—not spend all my time talking about how shitty it is and how anyone who would choose to live there deserves it.

   2016 March 11, Jennifer Coates, “I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out.”, in Medium

2. computingTo load the operating system into the memory of a computer. Usually shortened to boot.
3. computingTo compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of a system or program.

   Bootstrapping means building the GNU C Library, GNU Compiler Collection and several other key system programs.

   Gentoo X86 Handbook

4. broadlyTo build or put together (something) by first building or putting together the tools, building blocks, ideas, etc., necessary to build (the thing).

   And she finds the plan. She doesn't remember it; she bootstraps it from first principles, in a handful of minutes, just like she's done a hundred times before.

   2016 January 1, qntm, “Your Last First Day”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 04 Sep 2024

5. mathematicsTo employ a bootstrap method.
6. To expand or advance an activity or a collection based solely on previous actions, work, findings, etc.

   Gradually, more and more terms were discovered, especially as there was a tendency in the literature to list a number of related terms together, thus allowing me to bootstrap new terms found accompanying those originally searched for.

   2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5