Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to leave, to run off [20C use SE].

1668		Etherege She Would if She Cou’d I i: Ay! Ay! you may venture to bolt now.
1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 120: Then, of a sudden bolting into the room, he began to tell them.
1734		Pretty Doings in a Protestant Nation 35: Every now and then out bolts a Fellow and whips nimbly a-cross the way [...] fearful both of Bailiff and Constable.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To bolt, to run suddenly out of one’s house, or hiding place, through fear, a term borrowed from a rabbit warren, where the rabbits are made to bolt by sending ferrets into their burrows. We set the house on fire, and made him bolt.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 42: But mark this: provided you make good use of your lungs, and also make a decent stir before you get touched with hand or stick, I’ll pound them to bolt in a jiffy.
1822		T. Creevey letter 7 May in Gore Creevey Papers (1948) 223: A slight thunderstorm came on, and, according to invariable custom, my lady bolted.
1831		R. Ryan Everybody’s Husband I i: mrs. p.: Let me fly! bun.: (Aside) Oh, she wants to bolt!
1836		Westmorland Gaz. 23 Jan. 1/3: They both bolted like bricks; so I cut after them, and I called to the police, and the officers bolted after them like shot.
1841		‘Jack Sheppard & the Carpenter’s Daughter’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 11: So I kindly took her home that night, / But she bolted away with my togs by day light.
1842		Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: ‘Then let’s bolt,’ in tone emphatic / Bumptious Colin quickly said.
1857		H.S. Brown Manliness 17: He never goes away or withdraws, but he ‘bolts’ – he ‘slopes’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 414/2: He persuaded me to bolt with the money.
1861		Hills & Plains 2 217: Bolted, sir, four days ago — clean gone, after a run of swindling.
1866		Broad Arrow Jack 24: ‘The fellow’s bolted,’ he said, ‘and this is a dodge to keep us in the dark.’.
1871		Gympie Times (Qld) 11 jan. 3/6: He never goes away or withdraws, but he ‘bolts’ — he ‘slopes’ — he ‘mizzles’ [...] — he ‘walks his chalks’.
1878		J.H. Beadle Western Wilds 37: Bolted, did she?
1884		C.E. Craddock Where The Battle Was Fought 285: He’d bolt, sir; if that man, Toole, were bailed, he’d bolt.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 23: One fellow was saying his prayers under the table, and the waiters bolted to a man.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

2. to rush.

1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband V ii: Undone! undone! My Lord has just bolted out upon the Man, and is hearing all his pitiful Story over.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 9: He [dog] rose on his hind legs, snapped the herring out of Smallbones’ hand, bolted forward by the lee gangway, and [...] Smallbones bolted after him.

3. to leave one’s spouse.

1810		‘Jonny Raw & Polly Clark’ Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 4: He dreamt his wife had from him fled, / Ri tol de rol / Then full of joy he ’woke, it’s true, / and found his rib had prov’d untrue, / and bolted with the lord knows who.
1840		R.B. Peake Devil In London I iii: My lord wants her mopuses to patch up his own ragged estate – but old Bearbinder has bolted him.
1863		Empire (Sydney) 17 Mar. 2/6: [from Dly Telegraph, London] She has run away, or absconded, or bolted with a gentleman of good family.
1882		J.F. Mitchell ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday’ 🎵 And your wife. Ah! well, I’m bound to tell, / She’s bolted with the lodger.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Dec. 12/4: [T]here can be no ‘desertion’ in the case of a solicitor who bolts with the full approval and connivance of his better-half. So the next family-lawyer who wants to clear out will find his wife a less unsuspicious helpmate.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 116: A bim that won’t bolt while you doin’ a little jolt / is just one out of a thousand, my friend.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 120: ‘How long have you been married?’ ‘Almost five years.’ ‘Perfect! [...] You’re about ready to bolt, Jack!’.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 86: She’d gotten by with the furniture that Ralph Cunningham gave her when he’d bolted.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 216: Maybe I should have bolted as well.

4. (US campus) to cut a class.

1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 32: bolt. At Union College, to be absent from a recitation.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 18: bolt 1.v. To absent oneself from class; said both of students and instructors.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 24: bolt, v.t. To ‘cut’ a class.

5. of a man or usu. woman, to run off with a lover.

1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 23 Dec. 63: Do you know [...] as my young missus was a-going to bolt vith that ’ere feller.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 59: When I was seven years old my mother [...] bolted.
1881		W. Black Beautiful Wretch III 2: ‘Madge has bolted?’ [...] ‘Yes. Gone and married that fellow Hanbury.’.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 84: Bolt take someone else’s date away.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 135: ‘How long have you been married?’ ‘Almost five years.’ ‘Perfect [...] You’re about ready to bolt, Jack!’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 21 June 8: After tiring of her, he bolted with the current Susan.

6. (Aus./NZ prison, also do the bolt) to escape from prison.

1897		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Old Regime 105: We’re a-goin’ to bolt together. One can’t go ’lone.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Bolt. To escape. As in ‘do the bolt’.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 28: bolt v.To escape - ‘do a runner’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 23/1: bolt v. to escape, to ‘do a runner’.

7. (US campus) to defecate in one’s pants.

1997–2001

Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 bolt v 1. to defecate in one’s pants.