Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BOLD, a. [Sax. bald, beald; D. bout, contracted; It. baldo, bold; baldanza, presumption; imbaldanzire, to embolden. The sense is, open, forward, rushing forward.]

1. Daring; courageous; brave; intrepid; fearless; applied to men or other animals; as, bold as a lion.
2. Requiring courage in the execution; executed with spirit or boldness; planned with courage and spirit; as, a bold enterprise.
3. Confident; not timorous. We were bold in our God to speak to you. – 1 Thess. ii.
4. In an ill sense, rude, forward, impudent.
5. Licentious; showing great liberty of fiction or expression; as, the figures of an author are bold.
6. Standing out to view; striking to the eye; as, bold figures in painting, sculpture and architecture.
7. Steep; abrupt; prominent; as, a bold shore, which enters the water almost perpendicularly, so that ships can approach near to land without danger. Where the bold cape its warning forehead rears. – Trumbull. To make bold, to take freedoms; a common, but not a correct phrase. To be bold is better.