Definitions
help oneself, often through improvised means
Word origin
From boot + strap. The sense "pull up (without aid)" comes from the phrase pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.
Used in a sentence
“He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.”
“Sam spent years bootstrapping himself through college.”
“Bootstrapping means building the GNU C Library, GNU Compiler Collection and several other key system programs.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Self-starting aid”9 letters
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