BOOT Boot, n. Etym: [OE. bot, bote, adbantage, amends, cure, AS. b; akin to Icel. b, Sw. bot, Dan. bod, Goth. b, D. boete, G. busse; prop., a making good or better, from the root of E. better, adj.
1. Remedy; relief; amends; reparation; hence, one who brings relief.
He gaf the sike man his boote. Chaucer.
Thou art boot for many a bruise And healest many a wound. Sir W.
Scott.
Next her Son, our soul's best boot. Wordsworth.
2. That which is given to make an exchange equal, or to make up for the deficiency of value in one of the things exchanged. I'll give you boot, I'll give you three for one. Shak.
3. Profit; gain; advantage; use. [Obs.] Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot. Shak. To boot, in addition; over and above; besides; as a compensation for the difference of value between things bartered. Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. Shak. A man's heaviness is refreshed long before he comes to drunkenness, for when he arrives thither he hath but changed his heaviness, and taken a crime to boot. Jer. Taylor.
BOOT
Boot, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Booted; p. pr. & vb. n. Booting.]
1. To profit; to advantage; to avail; — generally followed by it; as, what boots it What booteth it to others that we wish them well, and do nothing for them Hooker. What subdued To change like this a mind so far imbued With scorn of man, it little boots to know. Byron. What boots to us your victories Southey.
2. To enrich; to benefit; to give in addition. [Obs.] And I will boot thee with what gift beside Thy modesty can beg. Shak.
BOOT Boot, n. Etym: [OE. bote, OF. bote, F. botte, LL. botta; of uncertain origin.]
1. A covering for the foot and lower part of the leg, ordinarily made of leather.
2. An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to extort confessions, particularly in Scotland. So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between them and the leg. Bp. Burnet.