jackboot

English

Noun

jackboot (plural jackboots)

1. A glossy leather calf-covering military boot, commonly associated with German soldiers of the WWII era
2. (informal) The spirit that motivates a totalitarian or overly militaristic regime or policy

   That country has been under the jackboot of the military for years.

Derived terms

• jackbooted

See also

• Hessian boot
• cowboy boot

Verb

jackboot (third-person singular simple present jackboots, present participle jackbooting, simple past and past participle jackbooted)

1. (transitive) To stamp on with a jackboot.
   • 2000, Geoff Nicholson, Bedlam Burning:

     The two porters leapt into action, steamed up to the front of the room and started jackbooting the burning paper.

2. (intransitive) To march in jackboots.
   • 1990, Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners (page 152)

     All his childhood they had stormed through the cinema newsreels, jackbooting triumphantly through Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Paris. Now they would jackboot through Garmouth. Followed by the Gestapo.

Anagrams

• bootjack