| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bolster |
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| SYLLABICATION: | bol·ster |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b l st r |
| NOUN: | A long narrow pillow or cushion. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: bol·stered, bol·ster·ing, bol·sters
1. To support or prop up with or as if with a long narrow pillow or cushion. 2. To buoy up or hearten: Visitors bolstered the patient's morale. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English. See bhelgh- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | bolster·er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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