bootstrap
2 synonyms and 1 antonym for bootstrap, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — To start and grow a business or project using only your own money and revenue, without outside investment.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
self-fund
self-finance
Antonyms
How to use bootstrap
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
bootstrap a startup
bootstrapped company
bootstrap process
pull yourself up by your bootstraps
Neutral in business and technology writing; the underlying idiom is often used politically and can be contentious.
Etymology
From boot and strap, the small loop used to pull a boot on, via the ironic image of pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps, which was originally a description of something impossible.
Full origin of bootstrap →Frequently asked questions
What does it mean when a company is bootstrapped?
It means the founders built it with their own savings and the cash the business generated, rather than raising money from investors. Bootstrapped companies grow more slowly but keep full ownership and control.
What does bootstrap mean in statistics?
Bootstrapping is a resampling method in which many samples are drawn with replacement from the data you already have, in order to estimate the uncertainty of a statistic. The name reflects the same idea as the business sense: generating what you need from your own resources.
Is Bootstrap the same as bootstrapping?
No. Bootstrap with a capital B is the name of a widely used front-end web framework of prewritten CSS and JavaScript components. Bootstrapping is the general process of starting something from minimal resources.
