bolster: [OE] The idea underlying bolster ‘long pillow’ is of something stuffed, so that it swells up. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *bolstraz, which was a derivative of *bolg-, *bulg- (source also of bellows, belly, billow and possibly bell, bellow, and bold). German has the related polster ‘cushion, pillow’. => bell, bellow, belly, billow, bold
bolster (v.)
mid-15c. (implied in bolstered), "propped up, made to bulge" (originally of a woman's breasts), from bolster (n.). Figurative sense is from c. 1500, on the notion of "to support with a bolster, prop up." Related: Bolstering.
bolster (n.)
Old English bolster "bolster, cushion, something stuffed so that it swells up," especially "long, stuffed pillow," from Proto-Germanic *bolkhstraz (cognates: Old Norse bolstr, Danish, Swedish, Dutch bolster, German polster), from PIE *bhelgh- "to swell" (see belly (n.)).
雙語例句
1. Britain is free to adopt policies to bolster its economy.
英國可以自由制定政策以振興經濟。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.
高利率使經濟更穩健.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. He tried to bolster up their morale.
他盡力鼓舞他們的士氣.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. Pillars bolster the roof.
柱子支撐屋頂.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
5. His re-creation of the city is credible, with a substratum of fact to bolster the fiction.