bottle
1 Americannoun
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a portable container for holding liquids, characteristically having a neck and mouth and made of glass or plastic.
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the contents of such a container; as much as such a container contains.
a bottle of wine.
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bottled cow's milk, milk formulas, or substitute mixtures given to infants instead of mother's milk.
raised on the bottle.
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the bottle, intoxicating beverages; liquor.
He became addicted to the bottle.
verb (used with object)
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bottles,
present (3rd person singular)
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bottled,
past participle, past
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bottling
present participle
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to put into or seal in a bottle.
to bottle grape juice.
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British. to preserve (fruit or vegetables) by heating to a sufficient temperature and then sealing in a jar.
verb phrase
idioms
noun
noun
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a vessel, often of glass and typically cylindrical with a narrow neck that can be closed with a cap or cork, for containing liquids
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( as modifier )
a bottle rack
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Also called: bottleful. the amount such a vessel will hold
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a container equipped with a teat that holds a baby's milk or other liquid; nursing bottle
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the contents of such a container
the baby drank his bottle
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short for magnetic bottle
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slang nerve; courage (esp in the phrase lose one's bottle )
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slang money collected by street entertainers or buskers
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slang well-informed and enthusiastic about something
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informal drinking of alcohol, esp to excess
verb
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to put or place (wine, beer, jam, etc) in a bottle or bottles
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to store (gas) in a portable container under pressure
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slang to injure by thrusting a broken bottle into (a person)
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slang (of a busker) to collect money from the bystanders
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bottlesimple
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bottlessimple
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have bottledperfect
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has bottledperfect
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am bottlingprogressive
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are bottlingprogressive
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is bottlingprogressive
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have been bottlingperfect progressive
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has been bottlingperfect progressive
Past
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bottledsimple
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had bottledperfect
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was bottlingprogressive
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were bottlingprogressive
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had been bottlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bottle
1325–75; Middle English botel < Anglo-French; Old French bo ( u ) teille < Medieval Latin butticula, equivalent to Late Latin butti ( s ) butt 4 + -cula -cule 1
Explanation
A bottle is a container, often made of glass, that gets narrower toward the top. You can choose to buy soda in cans or bottles. Some people drink chocolate milk from a bottle, and others prefer to sip a bottle of beer. Babies drink from a bottle that's made of glass or plastic and topped with a nipple. To bottle something is to put or store it — usually a liquid or a gas — in bottles. Colloquially, someone "hits the bottle" when they drink too much alcohol. And if you keep your feelings to yourself, you can say you tend to "bottle things up."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"As a man you could just bottle it up... it will fester and grow and it can very quickly turn very, very dark," he says.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The Señora offers Macaria a gift—a bottle containing her tears, which can revive the dying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
It was so hot the Dodgers set up pallets of bottled water near the gates and anyone brave enough to enter the stadium was given a plastic 16-ounce Dasini bottle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
I listened to that thing over and over again, until I spilled a bottle of soap in my tape deck and ruined it.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
The door also opened once a day to let in the trustee from Medical Supply with a dose of some stinging yellow liquid from a very dirty bottle.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The woman said prisoners had been give two-litre bottles of water after initially being handed flavoured water.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Around 10,000 bottles of each variety were stolen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Industry officials said most consumers—who buy bottles for $20 or less—have cut back on their purchases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
He’s also brought cookies and bottles of water to houses to liven things up.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
“But get the bottles first. You have to destroy them!”
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
So, perhaps the biggest lesson here is that recovery cannot be bottled and sold.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
Some inmates at two halls in Barlinnie in Glasgow first experienced problems on Thursday night and had no access to bottled water.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
As a woman gently washes her white hair with bottled water behind the cafe counter, Pruett says she can’t remember where she’s from.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Disrupting the flow of oil out the waterway would cripple Saudi oil exports already bottled up in Hormuz, and risk spiking global oil prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
“I'm here with you. I'm here for you. I'm sorry I'm not myself, but, honey, I'm absolutely glad you told me. You can’t keep this all bottled up.”
From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely
Pepsi needs to stop tinkering and consider more fundamental changes, including a spinoff of its bottling operations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
Coke itself absorbed years of margin pain before shedding its North American bottling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
Those spirits look poised to benefit from that same workaround tied to bulk shipments and U.S.-based bottling operations.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
Last year, Diageo drew flak in Canada for closing a bottling facility for Crown Royal in Ontario.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
The chap circled overhead for three quarters of an hour and tried to come down half a dozen times before finally bottling out.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
