bold

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊld/, [ˈbɒʊ(ɫ)d]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /boʊld/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /baʉld/, [bɒʊ(ɫ)d]
• Rhymes: -əʊld
• Homophone: bowled

From Middle English bold, bolde, bald, beald, from Old English bald, beald (“bold, brave, confident, strong, of good courage, presumptuous, impudent”), from Proto-West Germanic *balþ, 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 (“bold, daring, insolent”), both from Latin frons (“forehead”).

bold (comparative bolder or more bold, superlative boldest or most bold)

1. Courageous, daring.

   Antonyms: risk-averse; conservative; reluctant

   Bold deeds win admiration and, sometimes, medals.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 239c:

     It would be extraordinarily bold of me to give it a try after seeing what has happened to you.

2. Visually striking; conspicuous.

   the painter's bold use of colour and outline

3. (typography, of typefaces) Having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface.

   Many bold fonts are available on this computer.

   In HTML, wrapping text in <b> and </b> tags produces bold text.

4. Presumptuous, forward or impudent.
   • 1748, [David Hume], “Essay I. On the different Species of Philosophy.”, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, part I, page 18:

     […] even the boldeſt and moſt affirmative Philoſophy, which has ever attempted to impoſe its crude Dictates and Principles on Mankind.

5. (Ireland) Naughty; insolent; badly-behaved.

   All of her children are terribly bold and never do as they are told.

6. Full-bodied.
7. (Philippines) Pornographic; depicting nudity.
8. Steep or abrupt.
   • 1808, William Bernard Cooke, A New Picture of the Isle of Wight, page 144:

     The grounds descend with a bold slope to the water's edge, and rise finely upwards above the mansion, abounding with fine trees, and ornamented by a range of building at a distance, in a corresponding style […]

• (courageous): audacious, brave, courageous, daring, forward, doughty
• See also Thesaurus:brave

• bield
• bolden
• boldness
• embolden

From Middle English bolden, balden, from Old English baldian, bealdian, from Proto-Germanic *balþōną, related to *balþaz (see above). Cognate with Old High German irbaldōn (“to become bold, dare”).

bold (third-person singular simple present bolds, present participle bolding, simple past and past participle bolded)

1. (transitive, informal) To make (a font or some text) bold.

   Synonyms: boldface, embolden

   Coordinate terms: italicize, strike through, underline

   Please bold all these subheads.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To make bold or daring.^[1]
   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     […] for this buſines,
     It touches vs, as France inuades our land
     Not bolds the King, with others whome I feare,
     Moſt iuſt and heauy cauſes make oppoſe.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To become bold or brave.^[1]

• embolden

From Middle English bold, from Old English bold, blod, bolt, botl (“house, dwelling-place, mansion, hall, castle, temple”), from Proto-Germanic *budlą, *buþlą (“house, dwelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, wax, swell”) or *bʰuH-.

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.

• bolde, boolde (both obsolete)

bold (plural bolds)

1. (obsolete) A dwelling; habitation; building.

• bottle
• build

• BLOD

From English bold, from 1940s-1970s bold film (exploitation film).

bold

1. naked, nude
2. pornographic

• boldt (archaic)

From Old Norse bǫllr.

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥ʌlˀd̥]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌld

bold c (singular definite bolden, plural indefinite bolde)

1. ball

• fodbold
• tennisbold

• “bold” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “bold” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

• IPA^(key): /bold/, [boɫd]

bold n

1. Alternative form of botl

Strong a-stem:

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic бодль (bodlĭ), from Proto-Slavic *bodъľь (“needle, pointy tip”). Compare Bulgarian бодил (bodil).

bold n (plural bolduri)

1. pin

• îmboldi

• ac

Borrowed from English bold.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈbold/ [ˈbold̪]
• Rhymes: -old
• Syllabification: bold

bold (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜓᜎ᜔ᜇ᜔) (colloquial)

1. naked; nude; depicting nudity

   Synonyms: hubad, nakabold

bold (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜓᜎ᜔ᜇ᜔) (colloquial)

1. pornography; porn

   Sir, may nanonood ng bold dito.

   Sir, there's someone watching porn here.