boots

Etymology

noun

1. plural of boot
2. (Jamaica, slang, plural only) A condom.
   I said throw away the boots, I want my little youth 1980, Black Uhuru, "Abortion", Black Uhuru (re-released as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1983)

noun

1. (dated) A servant at a hotel etc. who cleans and blacks the boots and shoes.
   The old beggar ran up and down in his tattered toga, acting as both boots [translating Hausknecht] and waiter. 1962, JW Goethe, translated by WH Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 260
   The young man with Doyler, who indeed no longer worked at Lee's of Kingstown, but had advanced to a position of boots and bottle-washer at the Russell Hotel adjacent the Green, was looking uneasy. […] The boots was sure. 2001, Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, New York: Scribner, page 411
2. (UK, naval, slang) The ship in a fleet having the most junior captain.
   […] he sent on the 22d. Vice-Admiral Rook into it, with several Men of War and Fire-Ships, besides the Boots of the Fleet, to endeavour to destroy them: […] 1705, The Life of William III, Late King of England, and Prince of Orange, page 334
   The captain of Hotspur was Lieutenant T. Herrick, the youngest commanding officer in all the destroyers, and says Hotspur was the “boots” of the fleet! Being the junior ship, she was given jobs no-one wanted. 2005, Frank Wade, A Midshipman's War, page 115

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of boot