▪ I. † ˈbottle, n.1 Obs.
Forms: 1 botl, 2–3 buttle, (Orm.) bottl, 4– bottle.
[OE. botl, corresp. to OS. bodl, OFris. bodel, ON. ból (:—boðl):—OTeut. *boþlo-, from bu-, bo- ‘dwell’, with instrumental suffix -þlo = -þro (Gr. -τλο-, -τρο-). Cf. bold n.1]
A dwelling, habitation, building.
[In place-names, as Harbottle, Newbottle, Morbattle.]
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. St. Matt. xxvi. 3 Ða wæron ᵹesamnode þa ealdras þæra sacerda..to þæra sacerda botle. c 1105 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 552 Palatium, kinelic botl. a 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 185 Elch bilefful man þe is þider iboden shal finden þare his buttle. c 1200 Ormin 2788 Þe laffdiȝ Marȝe comm Till Zacariȝess bottle. |
▪ II. bottle, n.2 (
ˈbɒt(ə)l)
Forms: 4
botel, 5
bottelle,
botill,
botyll, 5–6
botell(e,
bottell, 6–7
botle,
bottel, 6–
bottle.
[a. OF. bouteille, also botel, common Romanic = It. bottiglia, Sp. botella, Pg. botelha:—late L. buticula, dim. of late L. butis, buttis vessel, butt.] 1. a. A vessel with a narrow neck for holding liquids, now usually made of glass; originally of leather.
| c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 147 Þes newe hoolis, þat ben maad in oold botelis. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 510 Ȝunder at my sadel boȝe hongeþ o botel, Ful of baume. 1436 E.E. Wills (1882) 108 A pere of botell of siluer. a 1529 Skelton C. Clout 652 Ye were wonte to drynke Of a lether bottell. 1611 Bible Jer. xix. 1 Goe and get a potters earthen bottell. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 34. Boisterous Clubs, that..throw Bottles at one another's Heads. 1836 Dickens Pickw. vii, Bottles, glasses, and dessert were placed on the table. |
b. The quantity (of liquor) which a bottle can hold, a bottleful.
Cf. cup,
glass. Often
attrib. (preceded by a numeral), as
a three-bottle man:
i.e. who drinks three bottles of wine at a sitting.
| 1687 [Montague & Prior] Hind & P. Transv. 2 [We] never trouble our heads with National concerns, till the third bottle has taught us as much of Politicks, as the next does of Religion? 1751 Carlyle in Ramsay Remin. iii. (ed. 1864) Being a five-bottle man, he could lay them all under the table. 1791 Boswell Johnson 99 Port wine, of which he then sometimes drank a bottle. 1812 L. Hunt in Examiner 11 May 289/1 Six-bottle Ministers and plenitudinous Aldermen. 1821 Byron in Moore Life xli. 472. |
c. fig. in phrases of Biblical origin (after
Job xxxviii. 37,
Matt. ix. 17).
| 1560 Bible (Geneva) Job xxxviii. 37 Who can cause to cease the bottels of heauen? 1599 Broughton's Lett. iii. 13 The bottles of the clowdes, as Iob calleth them. 1635 Swan Spec. M. iv. §2 (1643) 58 The aire is often clear, and those bottles of rain are not always there. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iv. xlv. 366 These old empty Bottles of Gentilism. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 II. 72 The wide seas..supplying the bottles of heaven with water. |
d. to pass the bottle of smoke: to give countenance to a conventional falsehood, to cant.
| 1855 Dickens Dorrit i. xxxiv, To help myself in my turn, and pass the bottle of smoke. Ibid. To keep up the pretence as a labour and study, and patience..and all the rest of it—in short, to pass the bottle of smoke, according to rule. |
e. A baby's feeding-bottle.
to bring up on the bottle: said of an infant reared by means of a feeding-bottle instead of at its mother's breast.
| 1848 Thackeray Pendennis I. iii. 25 His first socks..his bottle, and other interesting relics of his infancy. 1858 ― Virgin. I. xviii. 141 Baby..is bawling out on the stairs for his bottle. 1966 Child Care (Brit. Med. Assoc.) 21 An expectant mother who..has decided..to put the baby on the bottle is probably influenced by one or more of the following objections. |
f. A hot-water bottle.
| 1857 Mrs. Gaskell Let. 9 Oct. (1966) 889 We got two great bottles & slept together & heaped shawls on us to get warm. 1967 R. Mackay House & Day 142 The bottle's in your bed. I put a wee flask on the table. Ovaltine. 1968 R. V. Beste Repeat Instructions xiv. 147 I've just put a kettle on for my bottle. |
g. In various
slang uses. (
a) Phr.
no bottle no good; bad(ly), useless(ly).
| 1846 Swell's Night Guide 76 She thought it would be no bottle, cos her rival could go in a buster. 1931 W. F. Brown in Police Jrnl. Oct. 501 When he got up the steps, he had a mouthpiece who was no bottle. |
(
b) A collection or share of money.
| 1893 P. H. Emerson Signor Lippo v. 12 We never count the denarley on the pitch, but put each man's bottle into the sack just as it is till sharing time. 1928 Radio Times 2 Nov. 302/1 His [sc. a busker's] show ended, he passes along the line with his hat and proceeds to investigate the contents, or ‘bottle’. 1939 J. B. Priestley Let People Sing x. 256 Knocker brought out some money... ‘Not much bottle. A nicker, half a bar.’ |
(
c) A reprimand.
Naval.
| 1938 ‘Giraldus’ Merry Matloe Again 177 A ‘bottle’ from the captain of the quarter-deck who is usually the ugliest P.O. in the ship. 1950 G. H. Jones Worst Enemy 220 Others came in to see me over-anxious to please, full of ‘yes, sirs’ expecting always to be given what is called a ‘bottle’. |
(
d) Courage, spirit, ‘guts’;
esp. in
phr. to lose one's bottle, to lose one's nerve.
This use
prob. derives from the phrase
no bottle ‘no good, useless’ (sense 1 g (a) above). It is however often popularly associated with the rhyming slang term
bottle and glass = ‘arse’ and other similar expressions.
| 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 62 We all began to ask each other..why he hadn't made a dash for it. ‘What's the matter Frank, your bottle fallen out?’ 1965 Sunday Times 30 May 24/3 It's the worst that could be said about you, that you'd lost your bottle. 1969 It 4–17 July 11/2 You've gotta have a helluva lot of bottle to do something like that, and I believe that Morrison did it out of sheer contempt. 1978 P. Marsh et al. Rules of Disorder iii. 73 Clowns in the social world of soccer fans..aspire to being hooligans but lack the ‘bottle’ to succeed in such a role. 1982 A. Price Old ‘Vengeful’ vii. 114 Danny's real hard, and got a certain amount of bottle. 1985 T.V. Times 31 Aug.–6 Sept. 17/1, I don't think I handled the intrusion so well. I tend to lose my ‘bottle’. |
2. transf. The practice of drinking.
over a (the) bottle: while drinking; at the wine: see
over.
| 1709 Steele Tatler No. 2 ¶1 My Spark flies to the Bottle for Relief. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 240 Most of his performances were produced over a bottle. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 258 A dull man whose chief pleasures were derived from his dinner and his bottle. |
| attrib. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 507 ¶2 Our bottle conversation is so infected with them, that, etc. |
† 3. a. Something resembling a bottle; as: the seed-vessel of a plant, the honey-bag of a bee.
Obs.| 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. vi. (1623) O iij, The Nectar or liquid hony the Bees gather with their tongues, whence they let it downe into their bottles which are within them like unto bladders. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 499 The cocke heads, bells, or bottells which beare the seeds. |
b. colloq. A thermionic valve.
| 1940 in Chambers's Techn. Dict. 1945 Electronic Engin. XVII. 424 Vacuum bottles..had to be produced on an ever-increasing scale. |
4. Comb. and
attrib., as (sense 1)
† bottle-ale (also
attrib.),
† bottle-beer,
bottle-belly,
bottle-case,
† bottle-cider,
bottle-conjuror,
bottle-cork,
† bottle-drink,
bottle-faucet,
bottle-filter,
bottle-maker,
bottle-rinsing,
bottle-room,
bottle-stand,
bottle-stopper,
bottle-works; (sense 2)
bottle-bravery,
bottle-companion,
bottle-friend,
bottle-swagger,
bottle talk; also
bottle-bellied,
bottle-like,
bottle-shaped adjs.| 1586 Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 37 A Booke in Ryme..in commendations of Copper noses or *Bottle Ale. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 140 Away you Bottle-Ale Rascall. |
| 1641 French Distill. v. (1651) 122 It will tast as quick as *bottle beer. |
| 1820 W. Irving Sketch-bk., J. Bull (D.) Some choleric, *bottle-bellied old spider. |
| 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. (1814) II. 203 A..thick-headed fellow, with a *bottle belly and a bulbous nose. |
| 1830 Galt Lawrie T. vi. viii. (1849) 290 His fits of *bottle-bravery. |
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 89 ¶1 Sam..is a very good *Bottle-Companion. |
| 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 65 *Bottle-conjurors, and persons who will jump down their own throats. |
| 1746 W. Dunkin in P. Francis tr. Horace's Ep. ii. ii. 134 The Felon's Fork Defac'd the Signet of a *Bottle-Cork. 1791 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 6/2 He carried home all the bottle-corks he could come at. 1940 Dylan Thomas in Life & Lett. 274 A bursting sea with bottlecork boats. |
| 1683 Tryon Way to Health 164 All such *Bottle-Drinks are infected with a yeasty furious foaming matter. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 1193/1 The *bottle-like form of the Ascidia. |
| 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, xii. §1 Weavers, Horners, *Bottlemakers, and Coppersmiths. 1711 Customs' Notice in Lond. Gaz. No. 4862/5 Bottle-makers, and other Dealers in..Skins. |
| 1695 Lond. Gaz. No. 3114/4 Glass Works, Stone and Earthen *Bottle Works. |
| 1733 P. Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 2) s.v. Cucurbita, The Fruit of some Species is long, of others round or *Bottle-shap'd. 1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 426 Bottle-shaped fruits. |
5. Special comb.:
bottle-age, the length of time that a wine, etc., has remained in the bottle;
bottle-arsed a. (
Printers' slang), of type: wider at one end than at the other;
bottle-baby, a baby reared by means of a feeding-bottle;
bottle bank, a collection point (
usu. one or more covered skips) to which members of the public can take empty bottles for recycling; also
attrib.;
† bottle-bearer, one who carries a bottle, a butler (
cf. cup-bearer);
bottle-boot, ‘a leather case to hold a bottle while corking’ (Ogilvie);
bottle-boy, an apothecary's assistant;
bottle-charger, an apparatus for charging bottles with a liquid under pressure;
bottle-chart, a chart of ocean surface currents compiled from data obtained by means of bottles thrown from ships and subsequently picked up at a distance;
† bottle-clay, clay of which earthenware bottles were made;
† bottle-coaster, a stand on which decanters were passed round the table;
bottle-drainer, a frame in which inverted bottles are placed to drain;
† bottle-dropsy, dropsy affecting the abdomen only;
bottle-end, a round of glass resembling the bottom of a bottle, used in windows;
bottle-fed a., (of an infant or young animal) brought up on the bottle (see sense 1 e);
cf. breast-fed; hence (as a back-formation)
bottle-feed v. trans.;
bottle-feeding vbl. n., feeding (
e.g. of infants) by means of a bottle;
bottle-fish, the
Saccopharynx ampullaceus, a fish which can inflate its body so as to resemble a leathern bottle;
bottle-glass, a bottle-shaped glass (
obs.); the coarse kind of glass of which common bottles are made; also
attrib.;
bottle-gourd, a kind of flask-shaped gourd (
Lagenaria vulgaris);
bottle-grass U.S., a variety of foxtail grass,
esp. Setaria viridis;
bottle-green a., of a dark green colour, like bottle-glass; as
n. this colour;
bottle-heath, bell-heather (
Erica tetralix);
bottle-house, a building in which bottle-glass is made;
bottle-imp, an imaginary imp inhabiting a bottle; also, a Cartesian devil, a hollow figure suspended in a bottle of water;
bottle-jack, (
a) a jack for roasting meat, shaped like a bottle; (
b) applied to an escapement in a clock or watch resembling that of a bottle-jack; (
c) a kind of lifting-jack (Knight
Dict. Mech.,
a 1877);
† bottle-man, a servant or official who has charge of bottles;
bottle-nest (
= bottle-tit);
bottle-opener, an implement for opening bottles;
bottle-ore, a kind of sea-weed (bladder-wrack,
Fucus vesiculosus);
bottle-party, a party to which each guest contributes a bottle (of wine, etc.); also an establishment,
usu. a night-club, where drinks ordered in advance are served after licensed hours;
† bottle-pear, a kind of pear so called from its shape;
bottle-rack (
= bottle-drainer);
bottle-screw, a corkscrew;
bottle-shaker, an apparatus used in centrifugation;
bottle-shop, a shop licensed to sell wines and spirits only in the bottle;
† bottle-slider,
-slide, a tray for a decanter (
= bottle-coaster);
bottle-stone, a variety of obsidian;
bottle-stoop (
Med.), a block of wood with a groove on the upper surface, so sloped that the contents of a bottle placed upon it may be easily removed with a knife in dispensing;
bottle store, (
a)
S. Afr. = bottle-shop; (
b) a place where bottles are stored;
bottle-swallow, an Australian bird, a species of martin;
bottle-tit,
bottle-tom, the Long-tailed Tit (
Parus caudatus), from the shape of its nest;
bottle-track, the track taken in the ocean by a bottle thrown overboard at a given point;
cf. bottle-chart;
bottle-washer, one who or a machine which washes bottles; also (
humorous) one who looks after affairs, a factotum;
bottle-windowed a., having windows made up with bottle-ends (see above). Also
bottle-brush, etc.
| 1959 Spectator 28 Aug. 255/3 It..will be better still with a little more *bottle-age. |
| 1770 Luckombe Hist. Printing 233 It [sc. the type] drives out, or gets in, either at the head, or the foot, and is, as Printers call it, *Bottle-arsed. 1838 Timperley Printers' Man. 64. 1890 Farmer Slang, Bottle-arsed, type thicker at one end than the other—a result of wear and tear. |
| 1893 Daily News 9 Mar. 2/7 Was it what you call a *bottle-baby? 1905 Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 4/1 Wanted, nurse for night duty only; one thoroughly accustomed to bottle babies. 1963 M. McCarthy Group x. 221 Most of our babies are bottle babies. |
| 1977 Grocer 27 Aug. 7/1 (heading) *Bottle banks start. 1979 Observer 30 Dec. 3/8 The Glass Manufacturers' Federation has sponsored the Bottle Bank scheme (with 125 skips in 45 towns), to recycle the glass from bottles. 1984 Which? Aug. 355/3 Why not take your old non-returnable glass bottles to your local bottle bank instead of throwing them away? |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn sommelier, a *bottle bearer. 1656 Trapp Comm. Matt. ix. 17 Certain heretics called..bottle-bearers, because they bare a bottle on their backs. |
| 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago i. (D.) He..fulfilled the ideal of a *bottle-boy. |
| 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 122 *Bottle clay, of a bright whitish streaked yellow colour. |
| 1801 M. Edgeworth Belinda v, Their father pushing them on together, like two decanters in a *bottle-coaster. |
| ― Angelina iii, Angelina's letter was..found in a *bottle-drainer. |
| 1562 Turner Baths 3 The *bottel dropsey whych is about the stomack. |
| 1907 W. De Morgan Alice-for-Short ix. 92 A..window..filled with what some called *bottle-ends, and others German rounds. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 10 Apr. 10/1 This might be one of the causes of..infantile mortality, especially amongst *bottle-fed children. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 29 Mar. 65/2 She has built up an enterprise which last year bottle-fed 80 lambs. Ibid. 84/3 The other three [lambs] are being bottle-fed. 1962 Guardian 12 Jan. 8/7, I breast-fed one and bottle-fed the other at alternate feeds. 1966 Ibid. 28 Oct. 10/5, I watched two of them bathing and bottle-feeding the tiny babies. |
| c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 362/1 *Bottle-feeding will be preferable to the employment of a wet-nurse. |
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §213 Take therefore a Hawks-Bell..and hang it by a thred within a *Bottle-Glass. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3821/8 A Round Bottle-Glass-House 94 Foot High, and 60 Foot broad. 1765 Delaval in Phil. Trans. LV. 24 Several pieces of green bottle glass. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 651 The coarsest and simplest form of this manufacture is bottle-glass. |
| 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 309 The *bottle-gourds (Lagenaria)..being shaped like flasks. |
| 1814 J. Green in Trans. Soc. Promotion Useful Arts III. 121 Panicum viride. *Bottle grass. 1840 Dewey in Mass. Zool. & Bot. Surv.: Plants 244 Setaria. Bottle Grass. |
| 1816 Coleridge Statesm. Man. (1817) 360 Black, blue, or *bottle-green. 1862 Enquire Within 112 From the darkest bottle-green..to the lightest pea-green. |
| 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. i. 13 Red fly-catchers, and pink *bottle-heath, and sweet white orchis. |
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 652 A *bottle-house has generally eight other furnaces. |
| 1822 De Quincey Confess. Wks. I. 106 The letter would poison my very existence, like the *bottle-imp. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xxix. 5598 *Bottle imps. 1947 Antiquity XXI. 105 A toy known sometimes as a Bottle-imp, sometimes more grandly as a Cartesian Devil or Diver. |
| 1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery (ed. 2) vii. 155 The *bottle-jack..is wound up like a watch, by means of a key. 1850 Denison Clock & Watchm. 50 The bottle-jack or ‘vertical’ pallets. 1860 Ibid. (ed. 4) 35 The bottle-jack escapement is precisely the same as in De Vick's clock. 1869 Curzon Visit Monast. 283 Twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle jack. |
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Farew. Tower bottles, Each *Bottleman (but I) Had alwayes a crack'd crowne or a black eye. 1634 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 19 To the porters musicians and bottlemen for their rewardes. |
| 1931 Kansas City Times 17 Dec. 20 There were a few keys and a corkscrew and *bottle-opener in the bunch. a 1953 Dylan Thomas Quite Early One Morning (1954) 31 Why should the bottle-opener be under the hall-stand? |
| 1756 W. Borlase Observ. State Scilly Isl. 120 The gross *Bottle-ore, which has hollow nobs or pustules in it, is reckoned to make the best kelp. |
| 1926 C. Beaton Diary 9 Dec. in Wand. Years (1961) 151, I was invited to Madge Garland's *bottle-party. 1931 A. Powell Afternoon Men i. i. 23 ‘Is it a bottle party?’ ‘You'd better bring a bottle of something,’ said Barlow, ‘in case there isn't anything to drink at all.’ 1937 Daily Herald 26 Jan. 4/5 There may also be provisions to deal with bottle parties. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 439 Peares take their name..of the forme of their neck, as the *Bottle-peares. |
| 1846 French Dom. Cookery 323 Rinse them [bottles] as they become empty, and invert them on the *bottle-rack. |
| 1702 Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1367 A close spiral revolution like the Worm of a *Bottle Screw. 1775 J. Granger Biogr. Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) III. 148 Her hair is dressed in many formal curls, which nearly resemble bottle-screws. 1938 Masefield Dead Ned 133 A clasp-knife having at its back a bottle-screw. 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 60 Corkscrews, also known as bottle screws, screws, and steel worms, were being made in Tudor times. |
| 1913 Oxford Univ. Gaz. 4 June 943/2 Motor driven centrifuge and *bottle-shaker. |
| 1929 Times 30 Jan. 9/7 These were what were known as ‘*bottle shops’, and could not sell less than a bottle of spirits and a half-bottle of wine at any one time. |
| 1785 Lounger No. 86 As harmless as e'er a *bottle-slider at the table. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxvi, His head crowned with a bottle-slider, his eye leering with an expression betwixt fun and the effects of wine. |
| 1862 G. H. Mason Zululand ii. 17 Another..formerly kept a small *bottle store. 1944 J. A. Lee in D. M. Davin N.Z. Short Stories (1953) 104 There are rats in the bottle store, dozens of them! 1950 Cape Times 17 June (W.-e. Mag.) 5 As soon as the bottlestore opens, the mailer is there. He gets his regulation two bottles and takes this to the shebeen. |
| 1898 Morris Austral Engl. 47/2 *Bottle-Swallow, a popular name for the bird Lagenoplastis ariel, otherwise called the Fairy Martin... The name refers to the bird's peculiar retort-shaped nest. |
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 72 The *Bottle-tit..has a long hanging nest like a bottle. |
| 1837 Southern Lit. Messenger III. 656 They have yet founded no city to themselves..but are willing to remain the boot-cleaners and the *bottle-washers of the whites. 1865 Derby Mercury 1 Mar., Thoroughly cleaned by the steam bottle-washer. a 1887 Mod. colloq. Head cook and bottle-washer of the establishment. 1894 Daily News 8 Mar. 8/6 (Advt.), Handy man as Bottlewasher or Kitchen Porter. 1928 East End Star May 3/3 She is Superintendent, Treasurer, cook and bottlewasher. |
| 1899 Kipling Stalky 224 A little *bottle-windowed, half-dairy, half-restaurant, a dark-browed, two hundred-year-old house. |
▸
attrib. orig. U.S. Of hair colour: dyed or bleached. Also: designating a person with dyed or bleached hair. Chiefly in
bottle blonde.
| 1898 Washington Post 16 Jan. iii. 2/7 Lillian uses a different bleach than that of any other bottle blonde on the stage. 1931 Athens (Ohio) Messenger 13 Oct. 2/6 On her head perched a rose-coloured hat, accentuating the bottle-blond of her hair. 1994 Atlanta Constit. (Nexis) 22 Apr. d3 When Madonna appears courtside at The Omni as a bottle brunette..life offers no more guarantees. 2000 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze (2001) xvi. 177 He reeled and listed about the floor.., a bottle of bubbly in his hands which he sprayed racing-driver style over a gaggle of shrieking bottle blondes. |
▪ III. bottle, n.3 (
ˈbɒt(ə)l)
Forms: 4–6
botel, 5
bottelle, 5–6
botell(e, 6
bottel, 6–7
bottell, 7
botle, 6–
bottle.
[a. OF. botel, dim. of *bot, masc. form = botte bundle.] 1. A bundle of hay or straw: now somewhat local in use.
to look for a needle in a bottle of hay: to engage in a hopeless search.
Cf. Needle in a haystack.
| c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 14 Al-though it be nat worth a Botel hey. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 85 A peck of otys and a botell of haye. 1530 Palsgr. 620 He is aboue in the haye lofte makynge botelles. 1578 Scotter Manor Roll in Peacock N. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v., No man shall gett anie bottells of furres [i.e. furze]. 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier (1871) 4 b, He..gropeth in the dark to find a needle in a bottle of hay. 1617 in Hearne Coll. (1885) I. 53 Hay being 20s. a load, the Penny Bottle ought to wey 3{ltilde}½. 1798 D. Graham Wks. II. 120 Shaking down two bottles of straw. a 1845 Hood Lost Heir ii, A child as is lost about London streets..is a needle in a bottle of hay. |
2. bottle-horse, a horse for carrying bundles or packages, a pack-horse.
| 1461–83 Ord. R. Househ. 75 This office [of Sellar] hath a sumpter-man and horse, and also a bottle-horse. 1469 Ibid. (1790) 97 Item, A maile horse and a botell horse. |
▪ IV. bottle, n.4 Bot. (
ˈbɒt(ə)l)
[Partly corruption of boþel, buddle; partly a special use of bottle n.1, from the shape of the ovary or calyx in some of the plants so named.] The popular name of several plants, chiefly with
adj. denoting colour, as blue-bottle,
q.v.;
white bottle,
Silene inflata;
yellow bottle,
Chrysanthemum segetum (
= buddle);
bottle of all sorts, the
Pulmonaria officinalis ‘no doubt in allusion to the flowers of two different colours’. See Britten and Holland.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 95 Herbes, branches, and flowers, for windowes and pots. Botles, blew, red and tawnie. 1633 Gerard's Herbal ii. ccli. 734 The Violet-coloured Bottle or Corne-floure. |
▪ V. ˈbottle, n.5 Obs. Corruption of
boltel.
| 1660 H. Bloome Archit. A a, Astragulus, a bottle and fillet..Echinus a bottle cut with edges... Torus, any bottle. |
▪ VI. bottle, v.1 (
ˈbɒt(ə)l)
[f. bottle n.2] 1. trans. To put into a bottle for the purpose of storing or keeping. Often with
up.
to bottle off: to transfer (liquors) from the cask into bottles.
| 1641 French Distill. v. (1651) 122 Let it stand a week, and then bottle it up. 1650 H. More in Enthus. Triumph. (1656) 111 How so subtil a thing as this Anima is can be either barrel'd up, or bottled up, or tied up in a bag, etc. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 321 Let it stand seven weeks, then bottle it. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. (1814) III. 272 You might as reasonably attempt to dissect a bubble, or to bottle moonshine. 1882 Garden 18 Mar. 183/3 Keeping Grapes after they are bottled. 1885 H. Conway Fam. Affair ix. 70 They were very busy bottling off a quarter cask of sherry. |
2. fig. To store up as in bottles; to keep under restraint (anger or other feelings); to shut
up,
in,
down,
out.
| 1622 T. Scott Belg. Pismire 53 Vapours..botteled vp in cloudes. a 1711 Ken Anodynes Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 429 He..Bottles my Tears, accepts my Prayers. 1853 H. Drummond in Croker Papers (1884) III. xxviii. 268 Twenty years of wrath bottled up. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xxii. 486 To anticipate the process of being ourselves bottled in, by bottling the country out. 1865 Sat. Rev. 7 Jan. 23/1 To catch and bottle up his now evaporated ‘Spirit of the East’. |
3. Printing. To make bottle-arsed.
| 1877 Design & Work 15 Sept. 341 The letters stand fair and square on the shank—that is, not ‘bottled’, as we say in the trade. ‘Bottling’ arises from the following cause—imperfect locking up, or lines badly spaced out... The risk of getting ‘bottled’ letter is, however, not very great... Amateurs are in..danger of ‘bottling’ their own letter. |
4. intr. To collect money. So
ˈbottling vbl. n. slang. Cf. bottle n.2 1 g (
b).
| 1934 P. Allingham in Evening News 9 July 11/3 He is an expert at that delicate part of the business [street entertaining] known as ‘bottling’, which means the art of persuading people to put money into your hat. 1936 W. A. Gape Half Million Tramps vi. 159, ‘I only sing the old favourite songs. You can {oqq}bottle{cqq} until you learn some.’.. To ‘bottle’ is the slang term for collecting. 1939 Adeler & West Remember Fred Karno? iii. 47 They commenced operations, performing as often as they could draw a crowd, and collecting, or ‘bottling’, before the crowd dispersed. |
5. trans. To admonish.
Naval slang.
| 1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 37 To bottle someone is to dress them down very thoroughly. |
6. intr. With
out: to lose one's nerve (see
bottle n.2 1 g (d)); to back out of an action at the last minute, ‘chicken out’.
slang.| 1979 Listener 8 Mar. 343/3 This is the big crime, for them: if they are informers or if they don't have the courage to do a crime. They, as they say, ‘bottle out’. 1979 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 19/7 Asked if she went on the robbery, she said: ‘I was supposed to, but I bottled out.’ 1980 S. McConville in Michaels & Ricks State of Lang. 527 He was challenged and he bottled out. 1985 Times 17 July 12/1 Why did Ken Livingstone ‘bottle out’ and vote to set a legal GLC rate? |
▪ VII. ˈbottle, v.2 ?
dial. [f. bottle n.3: cf. F. botteler.] To make
up (hay) into bottles.
| 1611 Cotgr., Boteler, to botle or bundle vp. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxiv, They..did recreate themselves in botteling up of hay. |