booster

Pluralboosters

Formsboosters, boostering, boostered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An additional dose of a vaccine given after the initial series to renew or strengthen immunity.

   Health officials recommended a booster six months after the second dose.

   She scheduled her booster appointment for next week.

   Note

   Another clipped compound, like the child's seat: booster dose shortened to its first word. The disease usually comes first, as in a tetanus booster, and the verbs are everyday ones: you get, have or are due for a booster. The plural boosters often stands for a whole vaccination campaign or policy, which is how news reporting of 2021 used it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Anything that increases the strength, effectiveness, or success of something else.

   The tax cut acted as a booster for small businesses.

   Praise from a mentor is often a powerful confidence booster.

   Similarstimulus, tonic, fillip, spur

   Note

   Plain word-building explains the whole family: boost plus the agent suffix -er, so a booster is whatever does the boosting. The rocket stage, the explosive charge and the vaccine dose all narrow that single idea to one field. In everyday use the word usually follows the thing being raised, as in a confidence booster, and it can be applied to almost anything that gives a lift.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The first stage of a multistage rocket, supplying the main or additional thrust that lifts the vehicle off the pad and through early flight.

   The booster separated cleanly two minutes after launch.

   Reusable boosters return to land upright after their job is done.

   Note

   Launch engineers use the word for two jobs. It can name the first stage itself, which supplies the primary thrust, or units that add supplemental thrust alongside it during liftoff. In both cases the booster does its work early in the flight and is spent once the vehicle is climbing. That is why separation and recovery are the verbs it most often keeps company with.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A person who publicly champions a cause, product, or person, acting as an enthusiastic supporter and promoter.

   He was one of the city's most tireless boosters.

   As a booster of the arts, she donated to every gallery in town.

   Similarsupporter, champion, promoter, advocate, cheerleader

   Oppositecritic, detractor, opponent

   Note

   Journalists often use the plural with a raised eyebrow. When The Economist in 2012 called a district less of "the Democratic bastion boosters describe" than claimed, the word marked partisans whose enthusiasm runs ahead of the facts. Used of a person, booster can be warm praise, as in a tireless booster of the arts. Used of a group, it often signals that their claims deserve checking.

5. 5
   nounabbreviationellipsis

   Short for booster seat.

   Our son is too big for a car seat but still rides in a booster.

   He buckled his daughter into the booster and checked the strap.

   Note

   A clipped compound: booster seat loses its second word, and the bare noun keeps the whole meaning. Context decides which seat is meant, the raised seat that brings a child up to table height or the one that lets a car's ordinary seat belt fit safely. Both belong to family life, and in a car or at a kitchen table nobody hears the missing word.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A sealed package of randomized cards or figurines bought to add to a player's collection.

   Each booster contains a random assortment of cards from the set.

   Collectors chase rare pulls hidden in expensive boosters.

   Similarpack

   Note

   Collectible card and miniature games are sold in sealed packs. A booster holds a set number of mostly common pieces plus a chance at something rare. Players open boosters to expand a collection they already have, and the gamble of the rare pull drives much of the hobby's buying. Collectors speak of opening, cracking or buying a box of boosters.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   An in-game item that temporarily grants a player enhanced power, speed, or another advantage.

   Picking up the booster doubled his score for ten seconds.

   The track is full of boosters that fling your car forward.

   Similarpower-up

   Note

   Gamers use booster and power-up almost interchangeably. Booster leans toward items that add speed or a temporary surge, such as the pads on a racing track that fling a car forward. The effect almost always wears off, and that time limit is what separates a booster from a permanent upgrade.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A member of an organized club that raises funds and rallies support for a school or athletic program.

   The booster paid for the team's trip to the championship.

   Local boosters organized a fundraiser for new equipment.

   Similarsupporter, backer, donor

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To administer a follow-up dose of a vaccine to someone in order to strengthen waning immunity.

   The program aims to booster older residents every fall.

   Nurses boostered hundreds of patients during the campaign.

   Note

   The noun turned into a verb during vaccine campaigns. Its forms are regular: booster, boostered, boostering. Its natural home is the pair "vaccinated and boostered", where it sits neatly beside the older participle. Plain boost can mean the same thing, but boostered makes clear that a shot is meant and not just any improvement. The verb is still informal and mostly limited to medical contexts.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A word or phrase that intensifies or amplifies an utterance, such as 'really' or 'absolutely'.

    A well-placed booster can turn a flat statement into an emphatic one.

    Speakers reach for boosters when plain wording feels too weak.

    Similarintensifier, amplifier

    Oppositehedge, downtoner

    Note

    A term from discourse analysis, paired with its opposite, the hedge. Boosters such as really, totally or absolutely raise a speaker's commitment to a claim. Hedges such as perhaps or sort of lower it. Analysts count both to measure how confident or cautious a text sounds. In this technical sense, a booster belongs to the speaker's stance rather than to the meaning of the sentence.

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