bolster

1. 1.

   a pillow that is often put across a bed underneath the regular pillows

   Synonymslong pillow

   Broaderpillow

Other forms of bolster

plural

bolsters·

past tense

bolsterred·

present participle

bolsterring·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about bolster

What does bolster mean?

bolster means "support and strengthen". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in bolster?

bolster has 2 syllables: bol-ster. The stress falls on "bol". In IPA it is /ˈboʊlstɚ/.

What is another word for bolster?

Close synonyms include bolster up, pad, long pillow. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bolster a common word?

bolster is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.