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bolt upright
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.”
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!’”
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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