1) The right of a tenant to take wood or timber from the lord’s estate for certain specified purposes.
The custom survived the medieval period and was confirmed in manorial documents or individual leases until quite late, certainly into the seventeenth century: 1577-8 And also wood vnderwood Bushes & Thornes for fyreboote houseboote Hayboote wayneboote ploughboote hedgboote & fouldboote to be spent in & vppon the … demysed premises, Settrington. House boot and hay boot seem to have established the tradition and others were added over the centuries, becoming increasingly specific. The less usual liberties are dealt with under separate headings.
2) Profit, advantage, usually in the phrase ‘to boot’; that is into the bargain.
1522 eyder of thaym to have mesure for mesure and Richard to have a royd of land ... to boyte, Ovenden. It survived in local usage: 1826 paid George Earnshaw as Boot in exchanging horses, Meltham.