What's the difference between bolster and buttress?

Bolster


Definition:

  • (n.) A long pillow or cushion, used to support the head of a person lying on a bed; -- generally laid under the pillows.
  • (n.) A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support any part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
  • (n.) Anything arranged to act as a support, as in various forms of mechanism, etc.
  • (n.) A cushioned or a piece part of a saddle.
  • (n.) A cushioned or a piece of soft wood covered with tarred canvas, placed on the trestletrees and against the mast, for the collars of the shrouds to rest on, to prevent chafing.
  • (n.) Anything used to prevent chafing.
  • (n.) A plate of iron or a mass of wood under the end of a bridge girder, to keep the girder from resting directly on the abutment.
  • (n.) A transverse bar above the axle of a wagon, on which the bed or body rests.
  • (n.) The crossbeam forming the bearing piece of the body of a railway car; the central and principal cross beam of a car truck.
  • (n.) the perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
  • (n.) That part of a knife blade which abuts upon the end of the handle.
  • (n.) The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
  • (n.) The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
  • (n.) A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
  • (v. t.) To support with a bolster or pillow.
  • (v. t.) To support, hold up, or maintain with difficulty or unusual effort; -- often with up.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) His senior role in the Popalzai tribe and his chairmanship since 2005 of Kandahar provincial council bolstered his reputation as an Asian version of a mafia don.
  • (2) And if the Brexit vote was somehow not respected by Westminster, Le Pen could be bolstered in her outrage.
  • (3) • Mubarak becomes a major mediator in the Arab-Israeli peace process, remaining a consistent US ally bolstered by billions of dollars in American aid.
  • (4) The AP reports: The incremental assistance would be aimed both at bolstering the Ukrainian military as it seeks to halt the advances of pro-Russian forces in the east, as well as showing symbolic U.S. support for Ukraine's efforts.
  • (5) Clegg went on: "Unless there's overwhelming evidence that this [campaign] is a really effective way of bolstering public confidence in the immigration system, and bearing down on illegal behaviour in the immigration system, I'm going to need a lot of persuasion this is something [we want to continue]."
  • (6) A description of sleeping arrangements of the Kung San people of the Kalahari desert; speculations of the need for arousability in primitive society to prevent predators from attacking serve to bolster the view point.
  • (7) The survey was conducted at the end of a year in which Chinese growth had slowed and the eurozone stagnated, raising expectations that Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank will try to bolster the eurozone by starting QE on Thursday .
  • (8) The link between IUD use and pelvic inflammatory disease is bolstered by data showing a 3-fold increase in salpingitis in IUD users compared with women in general.
  • (9) Downing Street was irritated when Michael Gove bolstered Eurosceptics on Sunday, the day of Cameron's departure for the US, by saying he would vote to leave the EU if a referendum were held now.
  • (10) Jinsa describes its mandate as two-fold: "To educate the American public about the importance of an effective US defence capability...and to inform the American defence and foreign affairs community about the important role Israel can and does play in bolstering democratic interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East."
  • (11) At the request of the state governor, the interim president, Michel Temer, has authorized 1,000 soldiers and 200 marines to bolster security.
  • (12) Jared Genser Germany went public with its anger about Beijing’s handling of Liu’s case on Monday, accusing Chinese security services of leaking surveillance footage of Liu being visited by a German doctor in order to bolster a propaganda campaign pushing the idea that the dissident was too ill to be evacuated from China.
  • (13) The Bank of England sends a clear message to banks today to cut staff bonuses and share dividends so that they can bolster their capital cushions while maintaining lending to businesses and households.
  • (14) In a review published on Thursday, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai) says the Department for International Development (DfID) has failed to turn rhetoric about how bolstering the private sector can help end global poverty into a realistic, well-balanced and joined-up portfolio of programmes.
  • (15) It would also bolster the image of the Socialist president, François Hollande , as a social reformer after a hotly contested move to legalise gay marriage in 2012.
  • (16) For months, Tom McCarthy’s journalistic thriller Spotlight has been at the head of the pack – further bolstered by its recent Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
  • (17) Primark’s heady pace of expansion has bolstered ABF, which is grappling with lower sugar prices that have reduced profits in its core business.
  • (18) He would have liked to spend the summer bolstering his case for a critical autumn referendum on constitutional reforms he supports, but instead he has been forced to grapple with the banking issues.
  • (19) The salience of immigration is reinforced by a separate question in which "curbing immigration" comes top of varied populist policies as the "single action politicians could take to bolster your faith in politics", with 26% picking that priority, as against 19% who prefer tax cuts and 15% who prioritise a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
  • (20) Criticism that Africa is allowing its natural resources to be exploited, and that China is content to bolster dictators and ignore human rights abuses, merely feeds the partners' anti-western sentiment.

Buttress


Definition:

  • (n.) A projecting mass of masonry, used for resisting the thrust of an arch, or for ornament and symmetry.
  • (n.) Anything which supports or strengthens.
  • (v. t.) To support with a buttress; to prop; to brace firmly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The treatment of a Smith type-II fracture is a volar buttress plate unless extended comminution is present.
  • (2) If coastal ice shelves buttressing the west Antarctic ice sheet continue to disintegrate, the sheet could disgorge into the ocean, raising sea levels by several metres in a century.
  • (3) This ad hoc response to a moment of crisis was buttressed by successive laws that, in order to exclude a Stuart succession, enmeshed monarchy with the Church of England, thus fanning a religious hostility the rest of Europe was already growing beyond.
  • (4) The “Korea problem” is also connected to China’s own interests in the South China Sea , where Beijing’s expansionism faces off against the US, whose strategic goal is to buttress the power of smaller states in the region.
  • (5) The shelf procedure provides a buttress of bone for later reconstructive surgery such as cup or total hip arthroplasty.
  • (6) After previous methods failed, two patients were successfully treated by using a one-stage procedure which included (1) suture closure of the fistula, (2) buttressing the repair with a viable, pedicled, two-rib intercostal-muscle flap, and (3) performing an extensive thoracoplasty with a continuous drip infusion of neomycin.
  • (7) When management of a perforated peptic ulcer necessitates simple closure, the omentum may not be of adequate quality to buttress such a closure.
  • (8) A case is presented of fatal coronary embolism of Teflon felt used to buttress sutures in the placement of a Björk-Shiley aortic valve prosthesis.
  • (9) That explains why Miliband is so keen to buttress them with evidence of his belief that Labour credibility can be built on a philosophically different approach – and with some of the money saved by the cap.
  • (10) By detrusorrhaphy the submucosal ureteral tunnel is opened, the ureteral meatus is advanced and anchored onto the trigone, and the detrusor buttress of the ureter is closed (-rrhaphy).
  • (11) Complete exposure of the injured buttresses will facilitate assessment of the exact fracture pattern.
  • (12) Reconstruction of the noncoronary sinus was achieved by approximating intimal edge with Teflon felt reinforced buttress suture, then the ascending aorta was replaced by a Dacron prosthetic graft.
  • (13) In the early 80s when Tony Benn made his bid for the deputy leadership, there was a huge trade union movement and peace movement to buttress him if he won.
  • (14) In 4 patients, sets of cables had been sutured to the myocardium through an anterior thoracotomy, in some instances using Teflon pledgets as buttresses.
  • (15) Stage 1 begins with the initiation of a floral buttress on the flank of the apical meristem.
  • (16) Hollande goes to Berlin on Tuesday with the psychological advantage, buttressed by a strong new mandate that has shifted the terms of European politics.
  • (17) The tarsometatarsal reorientation arthrodesis addresses the deficient anteromedial buttress which is due to the most often concomittent hypermobile first ray.
  • (18) The most common complication was a fatigue fracture of the plates which, however, only occurred after biomechanically faulty application, without medial buttress of the bone, and in the absence of a cancellous autograft.
  • (19) Sometimes in severe cases they may demonstrate instability with conventional methods of treatment; thus for adequate stabilization they may need a palatal splint, direct wiring (internal fixation in the buttresses), intermaxillary fixation and cranial suspension.
  • (20) As there was the relatively high incidence of anastomotic leak occurring at the coronary artery orifice-graft anastomosis with one lane suture, we have circumferentially buttressed the coronary suture line with several pledget-supported mattress suture--direct two lane coronary orifice suture--for reinforcement.