bolster

英 ['b??lst?] 美['bolst?]

CET6+GRETOEFL中低頻詞擴展詞匯

復數(shù):?bolsters;第三人稱單數(shù):?bolsters;過去式:?bolstered;過去分詞:?bolstered;現(xiàn)在分詞:?bolstering;

bolster 墊枕，支持

詞源同ball, 原來指鼓起來的墊子，枕頭，護墊等，主要作名詞使用。后來做動詞使用，指支持，保護。

bolster: 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.)).

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。

2. The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.: 高利率使經濟更穩(wěn)健.

5. His re-creation of the city is credible, with a substratum of fact to bolster the fiction.: 他對該城歷史的再現(xiàn)是可信的，虛構的小說情節(jié)隱念著一些事實作為支撐。