Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also boot around, boot up) to kick, usu. in a fight.

1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 181: If they can look once on this duck, and not rear up jist as a mare does when she sees a splendid young stud rolling up, then my tailor’ll get booted for not havin’ done his duty – that’s all!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 6/1: If he comes up again, / It is perfectly plain, / He’ll be hooted / And booted, / Until he has scooted – / In fact the big man of Monaro / Will ‘cop’ what most people term ‘jar-ro.’.
1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 238: Up comes the foreman, grabs me by the scruff o’ the neck, an’ boots me right outer the yard.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 83: If he caught Sleepy drowsing at his bench, he did not neglect to boot him as a gentle reminder.
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 32: I say, you mustn’t try and be clever or you’ll get jolly well booted.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 530: Bootin’ ’em a bit, eh?
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 33: Instead of booting Waldo around, Dave turns and walks out of the joint.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 30: He [...] straightened up as if somebody had booted him from behind.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 105: KICK: boot, hack (Christ’s Hospital, 1905+), hoof (Forest, 1920+), punt (Malvern, 1902+) [...] root (St Lawrence’s, 1919+; Stonyhurst, 1920 +, etc.), [...] toe (Colston’s, 1887), turf (Harrow, 1906+).
1949		‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 89: Then we booted them.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 342: I fucked my leg up booting young punks like you in the ass.
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 271: It appeared to me that all officers were fools, and pompous fools to boot: and Lord, how I felt like booting them!
1981		W. Boyd ‘Bat-Girl!’ in On the Yankee Station 1982 142: Don’t boot him, Trev.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 29: Another minute and Norton would have booted the lot of them right in the arse.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 47: ‘Can you feel your baby kick at all?’ [...] ‘The wee thing starts booting away like billy-oh’.
1999		(con. 1944) C. Logue Prince Charming 52: Boot the third gentleman in the balls.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] Remind me, if I get the opportunity, to boot you fair up the arse before I leave.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 119: Beast arrested me [...] dey did boot me up inna cell.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 55: She just begged me for mercy but I just booted the bitch in her head.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 196: He was booting my guts.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 284: Ah haul the auld cunt doon ontae the deck n boot um in the ribs.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 132: John slams his door shut — he’s so angry he’s booting it hard from the inside.

(b) (also boot off, boot out) to eject, to force to leave.

1848		in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk 261: I have been pecked, ... alias booted, alias slippered.
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 29 Oct. 3/2: [O]ut of which city [i.e. Boston, MA] he was booted on account of his contemptibility.
1863		Criminal Life (Boston) 19 Dec. n.p.: Low grew wrathy and threatened to ‘boot’ the young man.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Apr. 1/1: Passengers were coolly booted out [of the train] at Baysdwater and told to wait for the ‘next’.
1907		Living Age July 117: ‘To fire,’ is [...] more vivid than ‘to sack,’ or ‘to boot’ [W&F].
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 5 Oct. [synd. col.] The proprietor properly angered booted him out into the open air.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 29: Rabe [...] had made the time-honoured jokes and booted the little man out of the ring.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 23: I t’ink I’ll jist boot yez offa dis train!
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 In case the movie industry gets tired of me and boots me out on my rear.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 39: Six months later he was indicted for perjury before a grand jury, booted without trial, and later stamped to death by a big stallion on his ranch in Wyoming.
1957		(con. WWII) ‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 57: The enture cadre [...] were about to have their ‘arses’ booted off the train’.
1962		J. Blake letter 12 Oct. in Joint (1972) 190: So then the Episcopals booted me out.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 162: If I sucker out anymore tonight he’ll freeze and boot me.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 133: The next day they booted him out of the tribe into the desert.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: boot – break up with someone: She booted me.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Boot off. [...] May also be used to order someone to go away.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 26 Sept. 3: Your spouse has booted you out of the flat.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 219: All guests were booted, including Octavio.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] The money they’d bring would help her and the kids when they got booted out of the orphanage.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 146: I got booted out of the tavern because I kicked the jukebox.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] We can swap notes on what it’s like being booted out of Regent’s Park.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 18: But who could tell if they’d finally boot her out of the joint.

(c) (US) to dismiss, to ignore.

1919

Van Loan ‘The Bone Doctor’ in Score by Innings (2004) 363: Jones had chances to make himself popular with the gang, but he booted every one of ’em.

(d) (Aus.) to drive a horse to the winning post.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 128: Now it is history that, on a bog track in ‘34, the young Demon Darb booted Peter Pan home [ibid.] 220: [T]the legendary hoop Billy ‘Last Race’ Cook who [...] earned his nickname by the way in which he always seemed to be able to get desperate punter out of a hole by booting home last-race favourites .

(a) (US, also boot ass, boot it, boot off) to walk or run away.

1905		in Superior Telegram (WI) 16 Dec. 13.5: The cavalry boots [...] had eighteen notches cut in the top of the leg, signifying 100 miles of booting it to the notch [DARE].
1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 241: boot it, v. To walk. ‘I booted it to town.’ [...] boot, v. Go afoot. ‘I booted down town in a hurry.’.
1962		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 88: Nine months rolled by and I heard a cry. / She rolled with pain and horror. / Three little grunts jumped out of her cunt, / I’m booting ass tomorrow.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 9: The contract was made and they booted down one of the lanes abounding in the area of the Irish Moss.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Boot off. To escape.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 boot v [...] 2. to leave. (‘I need to boot.’).
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 71: I had every clear intention of asking the lovely Mary-Ann to pick up her swag and boot off down the road.

(b) (US black/teen) to drive a car (at speed).

1962

P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 98: He’s bootin’ another new car. Man, oh, man, dat cat is really into somethin’.

(c) (N.Z.) to strain to finish.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 30: boot home Strain to finish, from the racing term for urging the horse to cross the line first.