bolo
/ˈbəʊ.ləʊ/US/ˈboʊ.loʊ/
bolo noun: a long, heavy, single-edged machete.
Noun (1)
bolo (plural bolos)
Verb (1)
bolo (third-person singular simple present bolos, present participle boloing, simple past and past participle boloed)
- To cleave or dismember (a person or an animal) with a bolo knife.
- "In the first place," began Drina, "you are to lie down flat on the floor and creep about and show us how the Moros wriggle through the grass to bolo our sentinels." […] Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, pages 13–14
Noun (2)
bolo (plural bolos)
- A soldier not capable of the minimum standards of marksmanship.
Verb (2)
bolo (third-person singular simple present bolos, present participle boloing, simple past and past participle boloed)
- To fail to meet the minimum standards of marksmanship.
Noun (3)
bolo (plural bolos)
- A string or leather necktie secured with an ornamental slide.
Verb (3)
bolo (third-person singular simple present bolos, present participle boloing, simple past and past participle boloed)
- To dress (somebody) in a bolo.
- Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
Noun (4)
bolo (plural bolos)
- A request for law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for a suspect.
- Synonyms:
- all-points bulletin, APB
Proper noun capitalized: Bolo
Bolo
- A barangay of Roxas, Capiz, Philippines.
Noun (5) capitalized: Bolo
Bolo (plural Bolos)
- Clipping of Bolshevik.
- [G]round strafing, however, was as exciting as in France, particularly when it was carried out dozens of miles behind the Bolo lines.1938, Ira Jones, An Air Fighter's Scrapbook, London: Nicholson & Watson, page 86
Noun (6) capitalized: BOLO
BOLO (plural BOLOs)
- A broadcast issued from a law enforcement agency to others, typically containing information about a wanted suspect, a person of interest, or a related vehicle.
- William Davis Jr. admitted he had been drinking and driving, but he said he shouldn’t have been caught. Even though police had issued a BOLO or “be on the lookout” for his car and an officer testified Davis made several traffic violations, he said there wasn’t enough probable cause for the initial...2015 September 10, “Knoxville attorney admits to DUI, argues he shouldn’t have been pulled over”, in WATE, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2016
- Police had issue^([sic – meaning issued]) a BOLO alert for Brown and the children when he suddenly arrived in the emergency room of Central Florida Regional Hospital, looking for his wife.2016 April 20, Mo Barnes, “Father kills estranged wife, shoots kids”, in RollingOut, archived from the original on 21 May 2024, retrieved 16 Jun 2017
- Synonyms:
- all-points bulletin, APB
Synonyms of bolo
Forms of bolo
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bolos |
| alternative form | BOLO |
| plural | Bolos |
| plural | BOLOs |
| alternative form | BOL |
| alternative form | bolo |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bolos |
| present participle | boloing |
| past participle | boloed |
| past | boloed |
Origin of bolo
From Philippine Spanish bolo, from Tagalog bolo.
Supposedly named after Bolo Pascha, a German agent in France during World War I.
From Argentine Spanish boleadora (“lariat”).
Words formed from bolo
Phrases with bolo
Words that rhyme with bolo
Questions about bolo
- What does bolo mean?
- Bolo means a long, heavy, single-edged machete.
- What part of speech is bolo?
- Bolo can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bolo?
- Bolo is pronounced /ˈbəʊ.ləʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of bolo?
- The plural of bolo is bolos.
Words near bolo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bolo (page history and authors); Bolo (page history and authors); BOLO (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bolo.wav.
Cite this entry: “bolo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bolo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.