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bootstrap

[boot-strap] / ˈbutˌstræp /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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The study also builds on earlier work by Caltech physicist Steven Frautschi and UC Berkeley physicist Geoffrey Chew, who pioneered the bootstrap approach in particle physics during the 1960s.

From Science Daily May 19, 2026

In science-fiction scenarios of first contact with extraterrestrials, humans usually bootstrap a common language with mathematics, demonstrating that we know the digits of pi and so forth.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 9, 2026

SilverSneakers represents just a small slice of that — the costs are not broken out by MedPAC — but it’s significant enough that the bootstrap venture has turned into a big business.

From MarketWatch Nov. 5, 2025

I think she is deeply wrong to let the tobacco company bootstrap these gas stations onto their suit.

From Slate Jun. 20, 2025

A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Those who pull themselves up by the bootstraps should be able to attain a life materially more comfortable than their parents’.

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 20, 2025

Pulling up your bootstraps and spraying some tough on it is important.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 3, 2025

“You’ve got to pick up the bootstraps of your state until your state finally cares for all of its families,” Becerra said.

From Seattle Times Feb. 27, 2024

I try to instill that in my daughter, but her generation does not accept this concept of pulling up from my bootstraps.

From Salon Oct. 26, 2023

Teachers exhorted us to be like him, to lift ourselves from poverty by our bootstraps.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

But he’s bootstrapped himself into intelligence and with savvy networking and know-how, he becomes indispensable to the British, volunteering as a major to survey land and negotiate treaties with the Native tribes and French army.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 2, 2026

He bootstrapped that company and sold it for over $100 million in 2021.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 4, 2026

But many of these smaller livestream channels are more bootstrapped operations, adherent to the same grind culture their content facilitates.

From Slate Sep. 2, 2023

The men bootstrapped the enterprise they now call EarthViews by raising $40,000 from a “friends and family” funding round to pay for equipment and travel.

From Seattle Times Jul. 8, 2022

“They’ve always bootstrapped stuff,” yielding cars that were advanced and innovative and that punched above their weight, Mr. Robbins said.

From New York Times Apr. 21, 2022

Just like Donald Trump, also the son of a bootstrapping developer, the Kushner boys talk of visiting building sites as children with their father, Charlie.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 15, 2026

Putting aside the chutzpah of the bootstrapping, it’s not clear that the court is wrong.

From Slate Jun. 30, 2026

Enter Dell Chandler, a failed English professor turned bootstrapping private detective, hired by Dr. Cutty to investigate.

From Los Angeles Times May 12, 2026

It’s a quintessential American story, of bootstrapping from the humblest of origins to the literal highest of heights.

From Seattle Times Sep. 14, 2023

He had worked as a printer but was now bootstrapping his own print shop on a shoestring, and became entirely self-employed.

From How and When to Be Your Own Doctor by Steve Solomon




Vocabulary lists containing bootstrap


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