Word.ws English Dictionary

jackbooted

Syllables: jack·boot·edUK/ˈd͡ʒækbuːtɪd//ˈd͡ʒækbutɪd/

jackbooted adjective: wearing jackboots. Also the simple past and past participle of jackboot.

jackbooted: wearing jackboots
Image: Lobsterthermidor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

jackbooted (not comparable)

  1. Wearing jackboots.
    • a jackbooted thug
    • For, as the mighty cavalcades approach / Periwigg’d, Jackbooted, to announce the coach; / A thousand lamps spontaneously appear, / Through the long vista—visitors to cheer.— [...]1819, [Hans Busk], “Canto III. Second Course.”, in The Banquet: In Three Cantos, London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […], →OCLC, page 96
  2. (figuratively) Authoritarian or oppressive, especially in a cruel or violent manner.
    • [T]his discourse is highly reminiscent of anticommunist rhetoric [...] emphasizing the totalitarian, jackbooted character of the enemy.1997, Didi Herman, “Representing Homosexuality and Its Agenda”, in The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 90
    • By 1797, they had overturned elections, vitiated the modest religious liberty they had sanctioned, and finally installed the "jackbooted-justice" of military courts throughout the nation.1999, Judith A. Miller, “Re-creating the Market: Thermidor and the Directory”, in Mastering the Market: The State and the Grain Trade in Northern France, 1700–1860, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire...

Also used as

jackbooted is also the simple past and past participle of jackboot.

Examples of jackbooted in a sentence

  • The synod of the Russian Church is presided over by a jackbooted general, armed with an unlimited veto and full power of prorogation.1864, Lord Robert Montagu, “The Eastern and Western Churches”, in The Four Experiments in Church and State and the Conflicts of Churches...
  • So might he have acted some cardboard jackbooted Prussian in an end-of-term comedy at Hyderabad House near Bridport.1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 53, in Earthly Powers, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN:
  • The house floated with tears and terror and uncontainable fury and music that made children dream of the jackbooted intruders who lit their way with torches made of Jewish hair.1995, Pat Conroy, Beach Music, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 475:
  • Hurrying, now, a family in frantic flight: after them the clattering of jackbooted feet.2006, Shira Nayman, “Dark Urgings of the Blood”, in Awake in the Dark: Stories, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 233:

Forms of jackbooted

alternative formjack booted
alternative formjack-booted

Origin of jackbooted

From jackboot + -ed.

Questions about jackbooted

What does jackbooted mean?
Jackbooted means wearing jackboots.
How do you use jackbooted in a sentence?
The synod of the Russian Church is presided over by a jackbooted general, armed with an unlimited veto and full power of prorogation.
What part of speech is jackbooted?
Jackbooted is an adjective.
How do you pronounce jackbooted?
Jackbooted is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒækbuːtɪd/ (UK).

Words near jackbooted in the dictionary

  1. jackbean
  2. jackbeans
  3. jackbird
  4. jackbirds
  5. jackboot
  6. jackbooted
  7. jackbooting
  8. jackboots
  9. jackbox
  10. jackboxes
  11. jackboy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jackbooted (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: en-us-jackbooted.mp3.

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