Skip to content
OneKitly

holster

nounverbattested in dialogue

  • //ˈhɒlstə(ɹ)//
  • //ˈhoʊlstə(ɹ)//

A case for carrying a tool, particularly a gun, safely and accessibly.

noun

  1. 1

    A case for carrying a tool, particularly a gun, safely and accessibly.

    Goring, like himself, had sprang forwards, first snatching a pistol from his holsters, and discharging it at him who seemed to be the chief of the party,—the man reeled and fell; but his fall was instantly avenged.

    Marion Wheeler took the seat, brushing the hem of her suit jacket aside to reveal a concealed holster. "You do know I carry a gun?"

  2. 2

    A belt with loops or slots for carrying small tools or other equipment.

Etymology

From Dutch holster (“pistol-case, holster”), from Middle Low German holster, from Old Saxon *holster, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hulastrą, *hulistrą (“hull, case, covering”). Cognate with Old English heolstor (“a covering, veil, hiding-place”), Danish hylster (“pistol case, envelope”), Icelandic hulstur (“sheath”), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂 (hulistr, “covering”). Compare German Halfter (“pistol case”). Related to hull, hele.

verb

  1. 1

    To put something in a holster.

Forms

plural
holsters
past tense
holstered
past participle
holstered
present participle
holstering
third person singular
holsters
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).