▪ I. † ˈbolting, n.
Also boltin, bolton.
[f. bolt n.1 (9).]
A bundle of straw.
| 1784 Twamley Dairying 129 Take a boltin, or bundle of Wheat or Rye-straw. 1886 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 224 Twenty boltings or bundles of straw, tied up from the thrashing machine. |
▪ II. bolting, boul-, vbl. n.1
(ˈbəʊltɪŋ)
[f. bolt v.1]
1. The act of sifting. boltings: the bran or coarse meal separated by sifting; siftings.
| a 1300 W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 155 Per bolenger (gloss. bultingge) est ceveré La flur. 1335 in Mem. Ripon (1885) II. 115 Unum magnum doleum pro bultynges. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. i. 18, Troy. Haue I not tarried? Pan. I the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. 1638 Penkethman Artach. A. b. 1877 Peacock Lincolnsh. Gloss. Boltings, the coarse meal separated from the flour. |
2. fig. Sifting of evidence, etc.; close scrutiny. boulting out: getting at by sifting.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 1286/1 The boulting out of the true signification of οὐσία. 1623 Sanderson Serm. (1681) I. 88 Means for the boulting out of the truth. 1771 Burke Corr. (1844) I. 256 Among those in opposition, there has been of late a good deal of boulting. |
† b. The private arguing of law cases for practice. Obs.
| 1598 Stow Surv. ix. (1603) 79 They frequent readings, meetings, boltinges and other learned exercises. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Bolting, at Greys-Inn. The manner is thus; An Ancient, and two Barrasters sit as Judges, three Students bring each a Case, and the Judges chuse which of them shall be argued: which done, the Students first argue it, then the Barrasters. |
3. Comb., as (in sense 1) bolting-cloth, bolting-house, bolting-hutch, bolting-machine, bolting-mill, bolting-pipe, bolting-poke, bolting-tub, bolting-tun.
| 1452 Test. Ebor. III. 137, Ij *bultynge-clothes, iiijd. c 1500 Ibid. IV. 192, Xxix yerdes off bowtyng cloth xld. 1617 Markham Caval. iii. 38 Boult them through an ordinarie bolting cloath. 1885 Harper's Mag. July 256/1 The finest..silk fabric made is bolting-cloth for the use of millers. |
| 1532 G. Hervet tr. Xenophon's Househ. (1768) 40 The instrumentes that belonge..to the kechin, to the bathe, and to the *boultynge house. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4003/4 Wash-house, Boulting-house, Bake-house. |
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 495 That *Boulting-Hutch of Beastlinesse. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. (1851) 205 Saving this passing fine sophisticall boulting hutch. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 122 It has a pair of stones of about four feet in diameter, and a *bolting machine. 1846 G. Wright Cream Sci. Knowl. 49 The bolting-machine of a flour-mill..The flour is sifted..through a cloth of a peculiar texture, called a bolting-cloth. Instead of the cloth, a cylinder formed of wire-gauze of different degrees of fineness is sometimes used. |
| 1766 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 139/1 They took an aversion to all *bolting-mills, and accordingly destroyed 7 or 8. |
| 1534 in Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 189 A *bultynge pipe coverid with a yarde of canvesse. 1588 Lanc. Wills (1857) III. 137 In the backe house and brewe house..a boltinge pype viijd. |
| 1552 Huloet, Bultre, or *bultyng poke for fyne meale. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 200/1 *Boultyng tubbe, husche a bluter. 1581–2 Inv. in Best Farm Bks. (1856) 172 In þe bowtinge house..one bowting tube. |
| 1485 Inv. in Ripon Ch. Acts 371, j *bultington. |
▪ III. ˈbolting, vbl. n.2
[f. bolt v.2 + -ing1.]
† 1. Hasty utterance, sudden blurting out. Obs.
| 1692 R. Lestrange Josephus' Wars i. xvii. (1733) 588 The Bolting of this Privacy made Herod stark mad. |
2. a. A sudden starting off; making off, running away, flight; (in U.S. politics) sudden secession from a political party.
| 1820 Scott Abbot xvii, These pretty wild-geese..have as many divings, boltings, and volleyings. 1860 G. H. K. Vacat. Tour. 169 The bolting of the Caithness men from the Sutherland men. 1884 N.Y. Times, This caucus system of ours is a despotism, tempered only by bolting. |
b. Horticulture. The action of bolt v.2 2 d.
| 1933 Discovery Mar. 76/1 The often troublesome ‘bolting’ of lettuce may be prevented by short periods of light. 1961 Amateur Gardening 16 Sept. 12/2 ‘Bolting’ is a gardening term meaning that the plants throw up seed heads instead of forming the tight hearts we aim at producing. |
3. Fastening with bolts.
| 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. I. vii. 74 The pintles torn from their boltings. |
4. Hasty swallowing.
| 1872 Mark Twain Innoc. Abr. xii. 79 No five-minute boltings of flabby rolls. |
5. Comb., as bolting-hole, a hole by which to bolt or escape; fig. a means of escape.
| c 1788 Burke Art. W. Hastings Wks. 1842 XIV. 68 It afforded him two bolting holes, by which he is enabled to resist the authority of the Company. 1881 Sat. Rev. No. 1321, 238 A secluded spot in a clearing, where a bank is honeycombed with burrows and bolting-holes. |
▪ IV. bolting, ppl. a.
(ˈbəʊltɪŋ)
[f. bolt v.2 + -ing2.]
That bolts or runs to cover.
| 1907 Daily Chron. 28 Nov. 8/1 Some of the bolting escort were returning. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 31 Jan. 4/2 The bolting rabbit. |
b. Horticulture. That is prematurely ‘running to seed’. Cf. bolt v.2 2 d.
| 1961 Auckland Weekly News 5 July 41/1 Bolting cabbages and savoys can be restored to normal if the stem is pierced one inch above soil level with a sharp penknife and a small pebble inserted in the slit. |