English
bottle
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈbɒ.təl/, [ˈbɒtᵊɫ̩]
  • (GA) enPR: bŏtʹəl, IPA: /ˈbɑ.təl/, [ˈbɑ.ɾɫ̩]
  • (CA) IPA: /ˈbɑ.təl/, [ˈbɑ.ɾɫ]
Noun

bottle (plural bottles)

  1. A container, typically made of glass or plastic and having a tapered neck, used primarily for holding liquids.
    Beer is often sold in bottles.
  2. The contents of such a container.
    I only drank a bottle of beer.
  3. A container with a rubber nipple used for giving liquids to infants, a baby bottle.
    The baby wants a bottle.
  4. (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.
  5. (attributive, of a person with a particular hair color) A container of hair dye, hence with one’s hair color produced by dyeing.
    Did you know he’s a bottle brunette? His natural hair color is strawberry blonde.
  6. (obsolete) A bundle, especially of hay; something tied in a bundle.
    • End of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale
      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, Act 1 Scene 1
      smallcaps Don Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.
      smallcaps 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, Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
      I 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.
  7. (figurative) Intoxicating liquor; alcohol.
    to drown one’s troubles in the bottle
    to hit the bottle
    Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” (song): See, my old man’s got a problem. He live[sic] with the bottle; that’s the way it is.
  8. (printing) the tendency of pages printed several on a sheet to rotate slightly when the sheet is folded two or more times.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Spanish: de bote
Translations
  • Russian: сноп
Translations
  • German: Buddel (Northern German)
Verb

bottle (bottles, present participle bottling; past and past participle bottled)

  1. (transitive) To seal (a liquid) into a bottle for later consumption. Also fig.
    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.
Translations Translations
  • French: donner le biberon à, nourrir au biberon
  • German: die Flasche geben
Translations Noun

bottle (plural bottles)

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


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