Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Fearless and daring; courageous.
  • adjective Requiring or exhibiting courage or daring: synonym: brave.
  • adjective Unduly forward and brazen; impudent.
  • adjective Strikingly different or unconventional; arresting or provocative.
  • adjective Clear and distinct to the eye; conspicuous.
  • adjective Strong or pronounced; prominent.
  • adjective Steep or abrupt in grade or terrain.
  • adjective Printing Boldface.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make bold; embolden; encourage.
  • To become bold.
  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To make bold or daring.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To be or become bold.
  • adjective Forward to meet danger; venturesome; daring; not timorous or shrinking from risk; brave; courageous.
  • adjective Exhibiting or requiring spirit and contempt of danger; planned with courage; daring; vigorous.
  • adjective In a bad sense, too forward; taking undue liberties; over assuming or confident; lacking proper modesty or restraint; rude; impudent.
  • adjective Somewhat overstepping usual bounds, or conventional rules, as in art, literature, etc.; taking liberties in composition or expression.
  • adjective Standing prominently out to view; markedly conspicuous; striking the eye; in high relief.
  • adjective Steep; abrupt; prominent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A dwelling; habitation; building.
  • adjective Courageous, daring.
  • adjective having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface
  • adjective presumptuous.
  • verb transitive To make (a font or some text) bold.
  • verb obsolete To be or become bold.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective clear and distinct
  • noun a typeface with thick heavy lines
  • adjective very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front
  • adjective fearless and daring

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English bald; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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