booster colloq. (orig. U.S.).
(ˈbuːstə(r))
[f. boost v. + -er1.]
1. One who boosts.
| 1890 Stock Grower 1 Feb. 3/2 The..company, of which Col. Partial Smyth is chief booster, seems to be worried. 1920 Glasgow Herald 23 Aug. 7 It is not suggested that we should become ‘blatant-boosters’. 1928 Observer 1 July 11/2 President Coolidge, a true ‘booster’ of his country. 1937 G. B. Shaw in Malvern Fest. Bk. 8, I am a booster of festivals because they are markets for my plays. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 1/5 An ardent Trudeau booster. |
2. Electr. A machine interposed in a circuit for the purpose of increasing or otherwise regulating the electromotive force acting in the circuit.
| 1894 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engin. 25 Jan. 79, I found in use in Chicago a system of raising the voltage on the feeders when the pressure falls, owing to the increase of load, by switching in motor dynamos. They have given the name ‘boosters’ to these instruments. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 34/1 Taking the current from the mains to the battery through a ‘booster’, that is, a dynamo arranged so that its E.M.F. is added to that of the mains. 1905 R. E. B. Crompton Unsolved Problems in Electr. Engin. 16 We have obtained regulation by means of automatic motor-generators, to which the name of ‘boosters’ has been generally given. 1906 Times (Engineering Suppl.) 22 Aug. 267/3 The use either of a large full-voltage battery for regulating purposes, a set of cells as back E.M.F.'s for the near feeders, or as a third alternative, the provision of extra boosters. 1911 Engineer 10 Mar. 237/3 A booster in use for boosting the pressure of an overhead conductor of an electric tramway system. 1911 A. B. Smith Mod. Amer. Telephony v. 77 Each line must be provided with its own booster battery. 1924 Roget Dict. Electr. Terms 24/2 Booster Transformer (or Boosting Transformer), a transformer with its secondary in series with the line to compensate for line drop on an A.C. feeder. |
b. A radio-frequency amplifier for intensifying signals.
| 1935 Nilson & Hornung Pract. Radio Communic. viii. 383 If the lines are long, it is necessary to insert booster amplifiers... For high-quality transmission such boosters should be inserted every 10 to 20 or more miles. 1954 Times 10 Nov. 2/6 The Truleigh Hill booster, installed to improve Sussex reception. 1959 Economist 7 Mar. 878/2 Hundreds of remote communities have owed their television fare to ‘booster’ stations that are built on high places and that relay and amplify the original broadcast signal. |
c. Aeronaut. An auxiliary engine or rocket,
esp. one used to give initial speed to a rocket or missile which is afterwards left to continue under its own power.
| 1944 A. L. Murphy Rockets 72 Some being catapulted by booster rockets, while other craft will take off as rockets. 1950 Jrnl. Brit. Interplanet. Soc. IX. 175 A single annular⁓shaped tank, the bottom of which is attached to the booster motors. 1961 Spectator 21 Apr. 546 The huge boosters that launched Major Gagarin's capsule. 1968 Times 16 Dec. 7/4 To begin with, Apollo 8, still attached to the third stage of the Saturn 5 booster, will be parked in a 119-mile earth orbit. |
d. Med. A dose or injection of a substance that increases or prolongs the effectiveness of an earlier dose or injection. Also
attrib. and
fig.| 1950 in Webster Add. 1953 Fishbein Med. Progress 66 The use of ‘booster doses’ will usually bring the process back under control. 1956 Collier's Year Bk. 563/1 The effect of the vaccine, once a child has had both primary shots and a booster, seven or more months later, will last for a long time. 1957 I. Asimov Earth is Room Enough (1960) 13 Additional work as a postdoctorate teaching fellow acted as a booster shot. 1957 Times 9 Dec. 11/5 In the case of diphtheria inoculations, it is usually considered necessary to give what is technically known as a ‘booster’ injection when the child starts school. |
e. Other
techn. uses.
| 1917 A. Marshall Explosives (ed. 2) II. xxxi. 527 Recently brass tubes 4 inches long containing a charge of trinitro-toluene have been introduced under the name of renforts or boosters. 1927 Engineering 11 Nov. 631 (caption) Booster pumps and compression tank. 1938 Fuller & Snow Air Conditioning v. 196 One of the standard types of booster heaters. 1945 Reader's Digest Apr. 97/2 The 74 booster stations in France's long-distance telephone system. 1958 Observer 15 June 10/2 Manufacturers [of shampoos] can meet these difficulties by..adding a foam booster. |
3. A shoplifter.
U.S. slang.| 1912 A. H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. (Partridge, Dict. Underworld), A gifted booster..of the feminine gender. 1925 Collier's Mag. 8 Aug. 30/1 The lowest type of thief is the ‘booster’. |
4. Special
Comb.:
booster chair, seat orig. N. Amer., a kind of raised seat for a young child, designed to fit on an ordinary chair or car seat.
| 1960 Sears Catal. Fall-Winter 489/3 Padded *Booster chair...Use on adult chair to put your child at adult table height. |
| 1967 Ibid. Spring-Summer 297/1 *Booster seat. Chrome-plated tubular steel. 1979 Chatelaine Jan. 60/3 There was no high chair, but when I asked for a booster seat, I got it and sat Eric next to the window. 1986 New Yorker 23 June 29/2 Elizabeth picked Charlie up off the booster seat. |