Definitions

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

  • noun A case of leather or similar material into which a pistol fits snugly and which attaches to a belt, strap, or saddle so that it may be carried or transported.
  • noun A belt with loops or slots for carrying small tools or other equipment.
  • transitive verb To put (a gun, for example) in a holster.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A leathern case for a pistol. Holsters were formerly, and are still sometimes, carried by horsemen or cavalrymen attached to the saddle, one on each side of the pommel; but they are now more commonly worn on the belt.

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

  • noun A leather case for a pistol, carried by a horseman at the bow of his saddle, or worn on the person suspended from a belt or shoulder strap.

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

  • noun A case for carrying a tool, particularly a gun, safely and accessibly.
  • noun A belt with loops or slots for carrying small tools or other equipment.
  • verb To put something in a holster

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

  • noun a belt with loops or slots for carrying small hand tools
  • noun a sheath (usually leather) for carrying a handgun

Etymologies

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

[Probably Dutch, alteration of holfter, hulfter, from Middle High German hulffter, case, sheath, quiver, covering, from hulft, from Old High German; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Proto-Germanic, cognate with Danish hylster ("pistol case, envelope") Icelandic hulstur ("sheath"), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂 (hulistr, "covering"). Compare German Halfter ("pistol case")

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