- a long, narrow piece of metal that you slide across the inside of a door or window in order to lock it
- He slid back the bolt on the door.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + bolt- draw back
- pull back
- slide back
- …
- a piece of metal like a thick nail without a point which is used with a circle of metal (= a nut) to fasten things together
- nuts and bolts
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + bolt- tighten
- tighten up
- loosen
- …
- nuts and bolts
- bolt of lightning a sudden flash of lightning in the sky, appearing as a lineTopics Weatherc2
- a short heavy arrow shot from a crossbow
- a long piece of cloth wound in a roll around a piece of cardboard
Word Originnoun senses 1 to 4 Old English, ‘arrow’, of unknown origin; related to Dutch bout and German Bolzen ‘arrow, bolt for a door’. noun sense 5 Middle English: transferred use of bolt ‘metal pin’.
Idioms
See bolt in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarya bolt from the blue
- an event or a piece of news which is sudden and unexpected; a complete surprise
- Her dismissal came as a bolt from the blue.
have shot your bolt
- (informal) to have used all your power, money or supplies
make a bolt for something | make a bolt for it
- to run away very fast, in order to escape
- The pony suddenly made a bolt for freedom.
the nuts and bolts (of something)
- (informal) the basic practical details of a subject or an activity
- The documentary focuses on the real nuts and bolts of the film-making process.
Check pronunciation:
bolt