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bolt upright
Idioms and Phrases
Precisely perpendicular, erect in carriage, as in She sat bolt upright in her pew . This expression was used in slightly different form by Chaucer in the late 1300s: “She was ... long as a mast and upright as a bolt†( The Miller's Tale ).Example Sentences
Ms Woods said Mr Skripal was conscious and sat “bolt upright†on a bench, Ms Woods said.
Actress Tuppence Middleton says she has "woken up bolt upright in the middle of the night" since rehearsals began for her latest play.
“As soon as I started reading it, I sat bolt upright. I didn’t think it would be that good.â€
When middle-class visitors were finally accorded seats, Wilmore said, theaters preserved their old sightlines by forcing the sitters bolt upright — “part of that Victorian strictness in all areas: ‘You jolly well better sit up and listen!’â€
When he made a weak move, which was rare, he’d sit bolt upright and inhale, emitting a sound like a snake’s hiss.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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