false bottom

American  

noun

1. a horizontal partition above the actual bottom of a box, trunk, etc., especially one forming a secret compartment.

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Etymology

Origin of false bottom

First recorded in 1790–1800

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

false bottom

There are many ways to hinge the false bottom so it flips up when you need access.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024

Whitman’s Sampler and the Russell Stover Holiday Season Box with 52 pieces got new packaging and new dimensions that did away with what was, essentially, a false bottom.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2023

To see whether the jellyfish were really asleep, they built a false bottom to the aquarium and lowered it—essentially “pulling the rug out” from under the creatures.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 27, 2021

The novel opens as she discovers, under a false bottom in her mother’s trunk, a decades-old journal kept by a man named Francis Aggrey, the father she’s never known.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

I was at the false bottom of a fake well.

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

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