noun A loop (leather or other material) sewn at the side or top rear of a boot to help in pulling the boot on.
noun A means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something without aid.
He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
noun The process by which the operating system of a computer is loaded into its memory.
noun The process necessary to compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of the system or program.
noun Any method or instance of estimating properties of an estimator (such as its variance) by measuring those properties when sampling from an approximating distribution.
verb To help (oneself) without the aid of others.
Sam spent years bootstrapping himself through college.
verb To load the operating system into the memory of a computer. Usually shortened to boot.
verb To compile the tools that will be used to compile the rest of a system or program.