bold

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bəʊld/, [bɒʊld]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /boʊld/

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• Rhymes: -əʊld
• Homophone: bowled

From Middle English bold, from Old English bold, blod, bolt, botl (“house, dwelling-place, mansion, hall, castle, temple”), from Proto-Germanic *budlą, *buþlą (“house, dwelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, wax, swell”). Cognate with Old Frisian bold (“house”) (whence North Frisian bol, boel, bøl (“house”)), North Frisian bodel, budel (“property, inheritance”), Middle Low German būdel (“property, real estate”). Related to build.

• bolde, boolde (both obsolete)

bold (plural bolds)

1. (obsolete) A dwelling; habitation; building.

• bottle
• build

From Middle English bold, bald, beald, from Old English bald, beald (“bold, brave, confident, strong, of good courage, presumptuous, impudent”), from Proto-Germanic *balþaz (“strong, bold”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰlē- (“to bloat, swell, bubble”). Cognate with Dutch boud (“bold, courageous, fearless”), Middle High German balt (“bold”) (whence German bald (“soon”)), Swedish båld (“bold, dauntless”). Perhaps related to Albanian ballë (“forehead”) and Old Prussian balo (“forehead”). For semantic development compare Italian affrontare (“to face, to deal with”), sfrontato (“bold,daring, insolent”), both from Latin frons (“forehead”).

bold (comparative bolder, superlative boldest)

1. Courageous, daring.

   Bold deeds win admiration and, sometimes, medals.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.

   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 239c.

     It would be extraordinarily bold of me to give it a try after seeing what has happened to you.

2. Visually striking; conspicuous.

   the painter's bold use of colour and outline

3. (typography, of typefaces) Having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface.

   The last word of this sentence is bold.

4. Presumptuous, forward or impudent.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 9.

     […] even the boldest and most affirmative philosophy, that has ever attempted to impose its crude dictates and principles on mankind.

5. (Ireland) Naughty; insolent; badly-behaved.

   All of her children are terribly bold and never do as they are told.

6. Full-bodied.
7. (Philippines) naked, pornographic

• (courageous): audacious, brave, courageous, daring, forward, doughty
• See also Thesaurus:brave

• bield
• bolden
• boldness
• embolden

From Middle English bolden, balden, from Old English baldian, bealdian, from Proto-Germanic *balþōną. Cognate with Old High German irbaldōn (“to become bold, dare”).

bold (third-person singular simple present bolds, present participle bolding, simple past and past participle bolded)

1. (transitive) To make (a font or some text) bold.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To make bold or daring.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act V, Scene 1,

     […] For this business,

     It toucheth us as France invades our land,

     Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear,

     Most just and heavy causes make oppose.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To become bold.

From English bold, from 1940s-1970s bold films (exploitation film).

bold

1. naked, nude
2. pornographic

• (archaic) boldt

• Rhymes: -ʌld

bold c (singular definite bolden, plural indefinite bolde)

1. a ball

• tennisbold

Probably representing an earlier *bodl, *boþl, from Proto-Germanic *bōþlą, from an instrumental form of *būaną (“to dwell”). Compare Old Norse ból. More at suffix -eld.

• IPA^(key): /bold/, [boɫd]

bold n

1. house, dwelling, building

From a Common Slavic root *bodli.

bold n (plural bolduri)

1. pin

• îmboldi

• ac