0 a piece of leather or other strong material at the back of a boot that you use to help you pull the boot on --
1 to improve your situation or become more successful, without help from others or without advantages that others have: --
I met a young engineer who had bootstrapped a company to offer mobile internet advertising services to brands.
He bootstrapped the company, pouring all his energy into it.
Nolan bootstrapped himself into the film business, cobbling together bits of 16-millimetre film stock with $6,000 to make his first feature.
His father had bootstrapped himself out of rural poverty to earn a university degree in business.
In the post-war period my authority has done remarkable things to pull the town up by its own bootstraps.
If we receive that co-operation and some money, the area will lift itself up by the bootstraps.
The corporation has pulled itself up by its bootstraps.
Third world agriculture can easily pull itself up by its bootstraps.
The community is pulling itself up by its bootstraps.
At that time we in the north were advised to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
They do not try to "lift themselves with their own bootstraps," and they remain, going on into the next generation, as second-class citizens.
We cannot expect countries or peoples to lift themselves up by their bootstraps when they have not even boots.
