pull oneself by one's bootstraps

noun

a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.

a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something: He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.

adjective

relying entirely on one's efforts and resources: The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.

self-generating or self-sustaining: a bootstrap process.

verb (used with object)

Computers. boot¹ ( def 24 ).

to help (oneself) without the aid of others: She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.

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Pull oneself by one's bootstraps is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Idioms

pull oneself up by one's bootstraps, to help oneself without the aid of others; use one's resources: I admire him for pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.

Origin:
1890–95; boot¹ + strap

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To pull oneself by one's bootstraps

Collins

World English Dictionary

bootstrap (ˈbuːtˌstræp)

—n
1.	a leather or fabric loop on the back or side of a boot for pulling it on
2.	by one's bootstraps, by one's own bootstraps by one's own efforts; unaided
3.	(modifier) self-acting or self-sufficient, as an electronic amplifier that uses its output voltage to bias its input
4.	a. Also: boot a technique for loading the first few program instructions into a computer main store to enable the rest of the program to be introduced from an input device
	b. (as modifier): a bootstrap loader
5.	commerce an offer to purchase a controlling interest in a company, esp with the intention of purchasing the remainder of the equity at a lower price

—vb , -straps, -strapping, -strapped
6.	to set up or achieve (something) using minimal resources
7.	(foll by to) to attach (something) to a larger or more important thing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Matching Quote

"The Abbe Goussault, a counsellor at High Court, writes [at the end of the 17th century]: "Familiarizing oneself with one's children, getting them to talk about all manner of things, treating them as sensible people and winning them over with sweetness, is an infallible secret for doing what one wants with them. . . . A few caresses, a few little presents, a few words of cordiality and trust make an impression on their minds, and they are few in number that resist these sweet and easy methods of making them persons of honour and probity.""

-Philippe Ariés

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pull oneself by one's bootstraps

boot·strap