bootstrap
booht strap
- n a strap that is looped and sewn to the top of a boot for pulling it on
- v help oneself, often through improvised means
- The 76-year-old had spent the convention bemoaning the laziness of the country's Malay population, which he's tried to bootstrap into prosperity for two decades.
- Indonesia discovered just how treacherous the market can be in the 1990s when that country's government tried to bootstrap an aircraft-manufacturing industry by building 100-seat .
- Perhaps the most highly placed of these bootstrap female executives is Verna Gibson, who in May was named president of Limited Stores (see box).