from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adj. Fearless and daring; courageous.
- adj. Requiring or exhibiting courage and bravery. See Synonyms at brave.
- adj. Unduly forward and brazen; impudent: a bold, sassy child.
- adj. Clear and distinct to the eye; conspicuous: a bold handwriting.
- adj. Steep or abrupt in grade or terrain: bold cliffs.
- adj. Printing Boldface.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A dwelling; habitation; building.
- adj. Courageous, daring.
- adj. having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface
- adj. presumptuous.
- v. To make (a font or some text) bold.
- v. To be or become bold.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Forward to meet danger; venturesome; daring; not timorous or shrinking from risk; brave; courageous.
- adj. Exhibiting or requiring spirit and contempt of danger; planned with courage; daring; vigorous.
- adj. In a bad sense, too forward; taking undue liberties; over assuming or confident; lacking proper modesty or restraint; rude; impudent.
- adj. Somewhat overstepping usual bounds, or conventional rules, as in art, literature, etc.; taking liberties in composition or expression.
- adj. Standing prominently out to view; markedly conspicuous; striking the eye; in high relief.
- adj. Steep; abrupt; prominent.
- transitive v. To make bold or daring.
- intransitive v. To be or become bold.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Daring; courageous; brave; intrepid; fearless: applied to men or animals: as, bold as a lion.
- Requiring or exhibiting courage; planned or executed with courage and spirit: as, a bold enterprise.
- Confident; trusting; assured.
- Forward; impudent; audacious: as, a bold huzzy.
- Overstepping usual bounds; presuming upon sympathy or forbearance; showing liberty or license, as in style or expression: as, a bold metaphor.
- Standing out to view; striking to the eye; markedly conspicuous; prominent: as, a bold headland; a bold handwriting.
- Steep; abrupt: as, a bold shore (one that enters the water almost perpendicularly).
- Deep, as water, close to the shore; navigable very near to the land.
- To make bold; embolden; encourage.
- To become bold.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. clear and distinct
- n. a typeface with thick heavy lines
- adj. very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front
- adj. fearless and daring
Middle English, from Old English bald; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
From Middle English bold, from Old English bold, blod, bolt, botl ("house, dwelling-place, mansion, hall, castle, temple"), from Proto-Germanic *budlan, *buþlan (“house, dwelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bheu-, *bhū- (“to grow, wax, swell, live, dwell”). Cognate with Old Frisian bold ("house") (whence North Frisian bol, boel, bøl ("house")), North Frisian bodel, budel ("property, inheritance"), Middle Low German būdel ("property, real estate"). Related to build. (Wiktionary)
From Middle English bold, bald, beald, from Old English bald, beald ("bold, brave, confident, strong, of good courage, presumptuous, impudent"), from Proto-Germanic *balþaz (“strong, bold”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhel-, *bhlē- (“to bloat, swell, bubble”). Cognate with Dutch boud ("bold, courageous, fearless"), Middle High German balt ("bold") (whence German bald ("soon")), Swedish båld ("bold, dauntless"). Perhaps related to Albanian ballë ("forehead") and Old Prussian balo ("forehead"). For semantic development compare Italian affrontare ("to face, to deal with"), sfrontato ("brave,daring"), both from Latin frons ("forehead"). (Wiktionary)