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
A fan appeared to throw a water bottle at the glass window, while others yelled and displayed their own middle fingers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 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
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
I tossed the bottle in a nearby bin and took my phone off do not disturb, now that I was ready to be disturbed again.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Something punchy: Small bottles of white balsamic and red wine vinegar, hot sauce, good olive oil and soy sauce.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
The spread already offers plenty of visual interest: bread piled high, bowls of herbs, cheerful wedges of citrus, golden cornbread, glossy bottles of oil and vinegar.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
They include the hassles of fixing a change machine, the reckless drivers he encounters during his pickup-and-delivery service and the endless struggle to find detergent bottles small enough to fit into his vending machine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
They did not find any drugs, but vipers, rattlesnakes and other species of snakes and lizards, including iguanas, hidden in shampoo and cream bottles, plastic containers and balls of socks.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Lined up along the hayloft railing were the bottles of milk she had put into the cellar the night before.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
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
Southern Water said around 9,000 customers were impacted and it was setting up bottled water stations.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 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
There are two vending machines snug against the wall, both of them illuminated in a fluorescent radiance, shiny with their rows of brightly colored snack wrappers and bottled sodas.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
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
Coca-Cola has outperformed in part because it handed its bottling back to independent operators and focused headquarters on building brands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
Last year, Diageo drew flak in Canada for closing a bottling facility for Crown Royal in Ontario.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 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
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.
