Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

blood-bolter'd MACBETH, iv. 1. 123. “It [blood-boltered] is a provincial term, well known in Warwickshire, and probably in some other counties. When a horse, sheep, or other animal, perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in consequence of such perspiration, or any redundant humour, becomes matted in tufts with grime and sweat, he is said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out, and coagulates, forming the locks into hard clotted bunches, the beast is said to be blood-boltered” (MALONE) . “To bolter, in Warwickshire, signifies to daub, dirty, or begrime. ‘I ordered (says my informant) a harness-collar to be made with a linen lining, but blacked, to give it the appearance of leather. The sadler made the lining as he was directed, but did not black it, saying, it would bolter the horse. Being asked what he meant by bolter, he re plied, dirty, besmear; and that it was a common word in his country. This conversation passed within eight miles of Stratford-on-Avon.’ In the same neigh bourhood, when a boy has a broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood, his head is said to be boltered (pronounced baltered). So, in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, Book xii. ch. xvii. p. 370: ‘they doe drop and distill the said moisture, which the shrewd and unhappie beast catcheth among the shag long haires of his beard. Now by reason of dust getting among it, it baltereth and cluttereth into knots,’ etc.” (STEEVENS) . “Boltered. Having the hair clotted or matted together.” Supplement to Richardson's Dict. “According to Sharp's Ms. Warwickshire Glossary, snow is said to balter together; and Batchelor says, ‘hasty pudding is said to be boltered when much of the flour remains in lumps.’ Orthoepical Analysis, 1809, p. 126” (HALLIWELL) . “I believe the Warwickshire word [balter] to have originated in ball, and to have meant balled, clogged, or matted.” Latham's Johnson's Dict. sub“Bolter.”