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bootstrap definition - telecom
  1. A leather strap looped and sewn on the side or back of a boot to assist the wearer in pulling it on.
  2. Self-reliant and self-sustaining, i.e., not needing anyone else's help. Such a person is capable of "pulling himself up by his own bootstraps," as the saying goes. I've been a bootstrapper all my life, but I have had a helping hand now and then, and always appreciated it. I occasionally need help getting my boots off. I use a bootjack for that.

Webster's New World Telecom Dictionary Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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