bottle
1 Americannoun
-
a portable container for holding liquids, characteristically having a neck and mouth and made of glass or plastic.
-
the contents of such a container; as much as such a container contains.
a bottle of wine.
-
bottled cow's milk, milk formulas, or substitute mixtures given to infants instead of mother's milk.
raised on the bottle.
-
the bottle, intoxicating beverages; liquor.
He became addicted to the bottle.
verb (used with object)
-
bottles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bottled,
past participle, past
-
bottling
present participle
-
to put into or seal in a bottle.
to bottle grape juice.
-
British. to preserve (fruit or vegetables) by heating to a sufficient temperature and then sealing in a jar.
verb phrase
idioms
noun
noun
-
-
a vessel, often of glass and typically cylindrical with a narrow neck that can be closed with a cap or cork, for containing liquids
-
( as modifier )
a bottle rack
-
-
Also called: bottleful. the amount such a vessel will hold
-
-
a container equipped with a teat that holds a baby's milk or other liquid; nursing bottle
-
the contents of such a container
the baby drank his bottle
-
-
short for magnetic bottle
-
slang nerve; courage (esp in the phrase lose one's bottle )
-
slang money collected by street entertainers or buskers
-
slang well-informed and enthusiastic about something
-
informal drinking of alcohol, esp to excess
verb
-
to put or place (wine, beer, jam, etc) in a bottle or bottles
-
to store (gas) in a portable container under pressure
-
slang to injure by thrusting a broken bottle into (a person)
-
slang (of a busker) to collect money from the bystanders
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
bottlesimple
-
bottlessimple
-
have bottledperfect
-
has bottledperfect
-
am bottlingprogressive
-
are bottlingprogressive
-
is bottlingprogressive
-
have been bottlingperfect progressive
-
has been bottlingperfect progressive
Past
-
bottledsimple
-
had bottledperfect
-
was bottlingprogressive
-
were bottlingprogressive
-
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:
In the wine-cellar scene where Devlin discovers uranium—a substance used to build an atomic bomb—in a bottle, Hitchcock relies entirely on Latin dance tunes playing upstairs rather than a suspense cue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
From the new world, a bird-shaped jar wears women’s attire from the Moche culture and a bottle is emblazoned with a fearsome fox warrior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
He took me to the Arthur J and ordered an expensive bottle of French red wine and paid for our meal with cash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
She says: "When you're in bed and your best friend is a hot water bottle - that's not normal."
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
At the matron’s unspoken command, I emptied a bottle of vitamins and a sack of peppermint drops the same way.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The standard sea of matte-pastel water bottles is starting to be flecked with shiny takes from Australia’s Frank Green.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
He said that every day he has come back to work, he has seen signs that people have spent the night there, like fresh bottles and trash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Children will also be able to pick up free stationery, pencil cases and water bottles.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
“What did I get myself into?” he asked, finding kitchen equipment, furniture, clothes, bottles, a family picture, and wooden planks with nails pointing upward coating the floor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
She turns and grabs one of the bottles that Danso placed on the table.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Outreach workers in green shirts handed him bottled water and hygiene kits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
A bottled water station has reopened in Cranbrook, which has been the worst affected area alongside Benenden.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Homemade vinaigrette is quick, inexpensive and generally much better than the bottled kind.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
"I have bottled water and other supplies," Matsuura said, adding he would "stay scared and cautious for the next few days" in case another big quake strikes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
There was a loaf of Italian bread in a little basket, and iceberg lettuce and grated carrots tossed with bottled dressing and croutons, and glasses of red wine.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Soon he was followed by 148 more of the company’s logistics men, who set up 64 mobile bottling plants near the fighting in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Net revenue increased 12% to $12.5 billion—mostly driven by strong sales of concentrates, the syrups and flavor mixtures Coca-Cola sells to its bottling partners—ahead of the $12.2 billion Wall Street had forecast.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
“In contrast, all of the other statutory provisions governing the manufacture, bottling, and labelling of distilled spirits exist to facilitate collection of taxes associated with the activity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Does it count as bottling if you were never in front?
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
At four o’clock on October 27 Doc finished bottling the last of a lot of jellyfish.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
