Bottle

Pronunciation

• Canada IPA: ˈbɑɾ(É™)l
• British IPA: /ˈbÉ’tÉ™l/
• US enPR: bŏtʹəl, IPA: /ˈbÉ‘tÉ™l/, ˈbɑɾlÌ©
• Rhymes: -É’tÉ™l

From Middle English bottle, botle, buttle, from Old English botl, bold ("abode, house, dwelling-place, mansion, hall, castle, temple"), from Proto-Germanic *budlą, *buþlą, *bōþlą ("house, dwelling, farm"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhōw- ("to swell, grow, thrive, be, live, dwell"). Cognate with North Frisian budel, bodel, bol, boel ("dwelling, inheritable property"), Dutch boedel, boel ("inheritance, estate"), Danish bol ("farm"), Icelandic ból ("dwelling, abode, farm, lair"). Related to Old English byldan ("to build, construct"). More at build.

Full definition of bottle

Noun

1. (UK dialectal or obsolete) A dwelling; habitation.
2. (UK dialectal) A building; house.

Anglo-Norman and Old French boteille (Modern French bouteille), from Vulgar Latin *botticula, ultimately of disputed origin. Probably a diminutive of Late Latin buttis.

Alternative forms

• botl Jamaican English

Noun

1. A container, typically made of glass and having a tapered neck, used for holding liquids.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 6, He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.
2. Beer is often sold in bottles.
3. The contents of such a container.
   I only drank a bottle of beer.
4. A container with a rubber nipple used for giving liquids to infants
   The baby wants a bottle.
5. (British, informal) Nerve, courage.
   You don't have the bottle to do that!   He was going to ask her out, but he lost his bottle when he saw her.
6. (attributive, of a person with a particular hair color) With one's hair color produced by dyeing.
   Did you know he's a bottle brunette? His natural hair color is strawberry blonde.
7. (obsolete) A bundle, especially of hay; something tied in a bundle.
• End of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer,Is that a Cook of London, with mischance? / Do him come forth, he knoweth his penance; / For he shall tell a tale, by my fay, / Although it be not worth a bottle hay.
• 1599, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare,DON PEDRO. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.BENEDICK. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam.
• 1590s, , by Christopher MarloweI was no sooner in the middle of the pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life.
8. (figurative) Intoxicating liquor; alcohol.
   to drown one's troubles in the bottle

Synonyms

• (for feeding babies) baby's bottle, feeding bottle, nursing bottle US
• (courage) balls, courage, guts, nerve, pluck

Antonyms

• (courage) cowardice

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To seal (a liquid) into a bottle for later consumption.This plant bottles vast quantities of spring water every day.
2. (transitive, British) To feed (an infant) baby formula.Because of complications she can't breast feed her baby and so she bottles him.
3. (British, slang) To refrain from doing (something) at the last moment because of a sudden loss of courage.The rider bottled the big jump.
4. (British, slang) To strike (someone) with a bottle.He was bottled at a nightclub and had to have facial surgery.
5. (British, slang) To pelt (a musical act on stage, etc.) with bottles as a sign of disapproval.Meat Loaf was once bottled at Reading Festival.

Derived terms

• bottle up