boost

A push from behind or below, as to one who is endeavoring to climb.

Noun

  1. A push from behind or below, as to one who is endeavoring to climb.
  2. Something that helps, or adds power or effectiveness; assistance.
    • The controversy gave a boost to the author's sales.
  3. A coordinate transformation that changes velocity.
  4. A positive intake manifold pressure in cars with turbochargers or superchargers.

Origin

Unknown. The verb is first recorded 1815; the noun, 1825. Compare Scots boost (“to move; drive off; shoo away”), bost, boast (“to threaten; scold”), Middle English boosten, bosten (“to threaten”). Possible doublet of boast.

Forms

boosts

Derived

booster boosterism boostglide boost pad damage boost deboost egoboo egoboost elo boost Lorentz boost megaboost postboost preboost reboost underboost

Verb

  1. To lift or push from behind (one who is endeavoring to climb); to push up.
    • Gaddis found that with his broken arm, he couldn't climb the wall. Josh grabbed his foot and boosted him up. - 2009, Richard L. Cave, Peace Keepers, page 39:
  2. To help or encourage (something) to increase or improve; to assist in overcoming obstacles.
    • This campaign will boost your chances of winning the election.
    • As unsatisfied with wafty promises that arts learning inspires “creativity” as with pledges that it boosts scores, the Project Zero researchers videotaped several very different classrooms in two schools with intensive...
    • More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the...
  3. To steal.
    • It is not at all unusual or suspicious for a woman to spend a good deal of the day out shopping, and feminine clothing styles often make it relatively easy for a female shoplifter to conceal "boosted" merchandise on her...
    • One time Noojie had to spend a weekend in jail for boosting and the four of us was left at the crib with Killer. - 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine...
  4. To jump-start a vehicle by using cables to connect the battery in a running vehicle to the battery in a vehicle that won't start.
    • It's easy to boost a dead battery, but this can be dangerous if it's done the wrong way. - 1980, Popular Mechanics, volume 154, number 4, page 152:
    • If I want to use the charged Montana battery to boost my old Summit where do I connect the negative cable on the good battery of the Montana? - 2004, Doug Mitchell, “how to connect for boost?”, in alt.autos.gm (Usenet):
    • Virtue is therefore like boosting one car battery from another: you want to connect positive to positive and negative to negative. - 2010, Thomas Hurka, The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters, page 121:
  5. To give a booster shot to.
  6. To amplify; to signal boost.

Forms

boosts boosting boosted

Derived

boostable morale-boosting nonboosted overboost reboost unboosted underboost upboost