Word.ws English Dictionary

bolster

/ˈbɒlstə/US/ˈboʊlstɚ/

bolster noun: a large cushion or pillow, usually cylindrical in shape.

Noun

bolster (plural bolsters)

  1. A large cushion or pillow, usually cylindrical in shape.
    • And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, / This way the coverlet, another way the sheets.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • ["]Don't you know how [Joseph Mallord William] Turner spoils his pictures by introducing a man like a bolster in the foreground? Well, in actual life every landscape is spoilt by men of worse shapes still." / "You sound like a bolster with the stuffing out." They laughed.1907 April, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter VII, in The Longest Journey, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I (Cambridge), page 88
  2. A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
    • This Arm ſhall be a Bolſter for thy Head, / I'll fetch clean Straw to make my Soldier's Bed; / There, while thou ſleep'ſt, my Apron o'er thee hold, / Or with it patch thy Tent againſt the Cold.[1715], [John] Gay, The What D’Ye Call It: A Tragi-comi-pastoral Farce, London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11
  3. A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn.
  4. A short, horizontal structural timber between a post and a beam for enlarging the bearing area of the post and/or reducing the span of the beam.
    Synonyms:
    crosshead, pillow
  5. A beam in the middle of a railway truck, supporting the body of the car.
  6. The perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
  7. The part of a knife blade that abuts upon the end of the handle.
  8. The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
  9. The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
    • Its [the Ionic's column's] ancient capital is generally formed of two parallel bolsters1826, Francesco Milizia, The Lives of Celebrated Architects Ancient and Modern
  10. (historical) A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
  11. (figuratively) That which supports or promotes; a catalyst.
    • My health too has been better since you took away that Montero cap. I have left off cayenned eggs and such bolsters to discomfort.1867, Charles Lamb, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Works: Including His Most Interesting Letters, page 225
  12. A wide-bladed cold chisel designed to split and shape bricks.

Verb

bolster (third-person singular simple present bolsters, present participle bolstering, simple past and past participle bolstered)

  1. (figuratively, often, transitive) To brace, reinforce, secure, or support.
    • Puget also teamed up with Matt Hyde (Deftones, Slayer) to co-produce the record, which was another smart move: Together, the pair ensures that AFI (The Blood Album)'s arrangements are streamlined, but bolstered by just the right amount of atmospheric texture.2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI sounds refreshed and rejuvenated on its 10th album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The Onion AV Club
    • However, once the bi-modes come on stream this [the power supply] will need to be bolstered by a feed at Braybrooke, just south of Market Harborough, for which reason the Department for Transport has supported the extension of overhead electrification from Kettering to Market Harborough.2019 October, Philip Sherratt, “Midland Main Line upgrade presses on”, in Modern Railways, page 62

Proper noun capitalized: Bolster

Bolster (countable and uncountable, plural Bolsters)

  1. A surname from German.
  2. A ghost town in Okanogan County, Washington, United States.

bolster meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

bolster in Tamil

திண்டு, முட்டுக்கொடு

bolster in Urdu

پشت پناہی کرنا, تقویت دینا

bolster in Bengali

large cushion or pillow
পাশবালিশ paśbaliś, কোলবালিশ kōlbaliś

bolster in Telugu

large cushion or pillow
దిండు diṇḍu
More languagesFewer languages
bolster in Malayalam
തലയണ
bolster in Kannada
ಬೆಂಬಲಿಸು, ತಾಂಗು, ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಿಸು, ಉತ್ತೇಜನ ನೀಡು
bolster in Indonesian
guling, bantal guling
bolster in Persian
متکا motakâ
bolster in Thai
หมอนข้าง mɔ̌ɔn-kâang

Examples of bolster in a sentence

  • This ought to bolster up the case for intervention in the conflict.
  • Meanwhile, Japan must bolster its own defenses and substantially increase defense spending to meet new threats.
  • The paper, one hundred thousand dollars, bolstered by the current, went flying over the street.

All 39 example sentences with bolster

Synonyms of bolster

Forms of bolster

Noun
pluralbolsters
alternative formboulster
alternative Scotlandbowster
alternative Scotlandbouster
alternative Scotlandboster
Verb
third-person singular presentbolsters
present participlebolstering
past participlebolstered
pastbolstered
Proper noun
pluralBolsters

Plural of bolster: bolsters

Origin of bolster

From Middle English bolster, bolstre, from Old English bolster (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *bolstr, from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz (“pillow, cushion”). Cognate with Scots bowster (“bolster”), West Frisian bulster (“mattress”), Dutch bolster (“husk, shell”), German Polster (“bolster, pillow, pad”), Swedish bolster (“soft mattress, bolster”), Icelandic bólstur (“pillow”).

Variant of German Polster.

Words formed from bolster

Phrases with bolster

Questions about bolster

What does bolster mean?
Bolster means a large cushion or pillow, usually cylindrical in shape.
What is bolster in Tamil?
Bolster in Tamil is திண்டு, முட்டுக்கொடு. See Bolster meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bolster?
Bolster can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bolster?
Bolster is pronounced /ˈbɒlstə/ (UK).
What is the plural of bolster?
The plural of bolster is bolsters.

Words near bolster in the dictionary

  1. bolsons
  2. Bolsover
  3. Bolsovian
  4. Bolstad
  5. Bolstads
  6. bolster
  7. bolster up
  8. bolster wagon
  9. bolster wagons
  10. bolstered
  11. bolstered up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bolster (page history and authors); Bolster (page history and authors); bolster (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bolster (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bolster (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bolster (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-bolster.wav.

Cite this entry: “bolster.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bolster. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.