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Definitions

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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“I figured we can absolutely bootstrap this with no corporate background, just hard work and the American dream, we’ll work 80-plus hours a week, we’ll make it happen,” Lieu said.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 30, 2026

One promising strategy is known as the "bootstrap" approach.

From Science Daily May 19, 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

He had no experience in elected office, no notable history of activist organizing, no college degree, no significant success in the private sector, not even a record of pulling himself up by his proverbial bootstraps.

From Slate Jul. 8, 2026

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

“We gotta get our bootstraps together and get back on the drawing board, look at the film and try to make the best of these last two games.”

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 10, 2024

“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

American autobiographical literature is filled with numerous accounts of remarkable men who pulled themselves to the summit by their bootstraps.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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

The sale, announced last week, caps an impressive career by Ng, a scrappy, diminutive septuagenarian who used her bootstrapped community newspapers “to empower the Asian American community” as she put it this week.

From Seattle Times May 29, 2024

Directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, the bootstrapped, lo-fi documentary was a smash hit, grossing more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget.

From New York Times May 12, 2024

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

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

From Slate Jun. 30, 2026

In that context, the bootstrapping process to cheat social death is a remarkable feat of development.

From Salon Nov. 10, 2024

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

If the bootstrapping narrative has been the norm in Congress up until now, that’s no coincidence, since it’s a story that flatters the typical politician in the House.

From Washington Post Mar. 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 Solomon, Steve




Vocabulary lists containing bootstrap


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