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:
She then considered a frightening explanation when her mother detected a funny taste to the water she kept in a bottle at her desk at Berkeley Engineering and Research.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Capital controls bottle up household nest eggs within the country’s borders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
The court heard that in April 2025 Nigel Farage's partner found that damage had been caused to their main front door at their house and a bottle of lighter fluid was found in the porch.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 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
Back at the bunk I took the bottle from the straw.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Marchesi Antinori chief executive Renzo Cottarella said the stolen bottles weren't insured.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
There are barrels at Patent Wines, such as the 2024 and 2025 Cabernet Sauvignon that will go into bottles in 2027 and 2028.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Once a magician, Imam now makes a living collecting bottles and recyclables from Delhi's streets.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
He’s also brought cookies and bottles of water to houses to liven things up.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
She tried to move closer to the table with the elixir bottles, but she had to concentrate on keeping the Quassia vines wrapped around Gia.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
She had bottled up her emotions for months, afraid that leaning in to them would draw unwanted attention and distract her from the task of helping her son.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
So, perhaps the biggest lesson here is that recovery cannot be bottled and sold.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 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
Freddo the robot walks across the office and takes a plastic bottled offered by a staff member.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Perhaps the simplest way to reduce future carnage would be to ban bottled oxygen except for emergency medical use.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
He said it may hand off more of its bottling in some regions, even as it tests in Texas whether to merge its snack and drink delivery networks.
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
It’s distilled and matured in the Canadian province of Manitoba, but then shipped in large containers to bottling facilities in the U.S. for distribution to American customers.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
In 1986, Dyson was named chief executive of a giant new bottling company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, created by Coca-Cola.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The locations were changed but the settings were alike—a strip of wasteland bordered by rows of rotted shacks, and somewhere near a mill, a cotton gin, or a bottling plant.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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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.
