Chapter Bonnet Lairds to Boots of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Boon Companion (A ). A convivial companion. A bon vivant is one fond of good living. “Who leads a good life is sure to live well.” (French, bon, good.)

Boot I will give you that to boot, i.e. in addition. The Anglo-Saxon boot or bot means “compensation.” (Gothic, bôta, profit.)

“As anyone shall be more powerful ... or higher in degree, shall he the more deeply make boot for sin, and pay for every misdeed.”- Laws of King Ethelred.

Boot-jack (See under Jack. )

Boots Seven-leagued boots. The boots worn by the giant in the fairy tale, called The Seven-leagued Boots. These boots would stride over seven leagues at a pace.
   I measure five feet ten inches without my boots. The allusion is to the chopine or high-heeled boot, worn at one time to increase the stature. Hamlet says of the lady actress, “You are nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.” (ii. 2.)

Boots (an instrument of torture). They were made of four pieces of narrow board nailed together, of a competent length to fit the leg. The leg being placed therein, wedges were inserted till the sufferer confessed or fainted.

“All your empirics could never do the like cure upon the gout as the rack in England or your Scotch boots.”- Marston: The Malcontent.