English

Noun

bolter ‎(plural bolters)

1. A person or thing that bolts, or runs suddenly.
   • 1992 June, Bill Tarrant, Gun Dogs: Problems with a Hunting Pattern, Field & Stream, page 104,

     Bolting can be one of the worst problems in dogdom to solve. We′ve all seen a bolter — or rather, we haven't seen him. We released him to hunt, and he was gone for the day, the week, the month. I′ve known of bolters to be gone for years.

2. (botany, horticulture) A plant that grows larger and more rapidly than usual.
   • 1949, Redcliffe Nathan Salaman, The History and Social Influence of the Potato, 2000, page 68,

     Evidence is accumulating that bolters are plants which have changed their long-day habit to that of short-day.

3. (flour milling) A machine or mechanism that automatically sifts milled flour.
   • 1983, Terry S. Reynolds, Stronger Than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel, page 138,

     The bolter was basically a sheet or roll of wire mesh or cloth (most often canvas or linen, but sometimes silk or another fabric). The flour produced by the mill was fed through or over the device, which was shaken by a mechanism (several were possible) taking power from the drive train leading from the water wheel to the millstones.

4. A person who sifts flour or meal.
5. (petroleum refining) A filter mechanism.
   • 1920, Henry Palmer Westcott, Hand Book of Natural Gas, page 634,

     This first bolter contains a screen of eight meshes to the inch and separates the hard particles, dirt or scale.

6. (Australia, sports) An obscure athlete who wins an upset victory.
   • 2009 February 2, Todd Woodbridge, “Only a few stars head home happy”, in Herald Sun:

     Last year he was eliminated by the bolter Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and this time he was beaten by the shining star, Fernando Verdasco.

7. (Australia, horseracing) A horse that wins at long odds.
8. (New Zealand, sports) In team sports, a relatively little-known or inexperienced player who inspires the team to greater success.
9. (US, politics) A member of a political party who does not support the party's nominee.
10. (military aviation) A missed landing on an aircraft carrier; an aircraft that has made a missed landing.
11. A kind of fishing line; a boulter.

Anagrams

• Tobler, troble

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

bolter m

1. indefinite plural of bolt