Etymology From Middle English botel (“bottle, flask, wineskin”), from Old French boteille, from Late Latin butticula, diminutive of buttis (“cask”). Doublet of botija. Displaced native pinne and non-native Old English ampella. Partially displaced Old English flasce.
1
A container, typically made of glass or plastic and having a tapered neck, used primarily for holding liquids.
Beer is often sold in bottles.
He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he’d never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
2
The contents of such a container.
I only drank a bottle of beer.
3
A container with a rubber nipple used for giving liquids to infants, a baby bottle.
The baby wants a bottle.
With Marvin getting older ... and walking now ... I thought it was time to start weaning him off of his bottle.2004 May 3, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):
4
UK, Informal (originally bottle and glass as rhyming slang for "arse") Nerve, courage.
You don’t have the bottle to do that!
He was going to ask her out, but he lost his bottle when he saw her.
1 more example
He told me I didn’t have the bottle to take them, so I told him I did and he handed them to me one by one and I swallowed them.2012, Theodore Dalrymple, If Symptoms Persist:
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A container of hair dye, hence with one’s hair color produced by dyeing.
Of a person with a particular hair color
Did you know he’s a bottle brunette? His natural hair color is strawberry blonde.
See that black boy over there runnin' scared / His ol' man's in a bottle / He done quit his 9 to 5 to drink full time / So now he's livin' in the bottle.1974, Gil Scott-Heron, “The Bottle”, in Winter in America:
See, my old man’s got a problem / He live with the bottle, that’s the way it is1988 April 5, Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”, in Tracy Chapman:
Etymology From Middle English botel (“bottle, flask, wineskin”), from Old French boteille, from Late Latin butticula, diminutive of buttis (“cask”). Doublet of botija. Displaced native pinne and non-native Old English ampella. Partially displaced Old English flasce.
To seal (a liquid) into a bottle for later consumption. Also fig.
This plant bottles vast quantities of spring water every day.
The temptation is to regard him [John Ogdon] as an idiot savant, a big talent bottled inside a recalcitrant body and accompanied by a personality that seems not just unremarkable, but almost entirely blank.2014 May 11, Ivan Hewett, “Piano Man: a Life of John Ogdon by Charles Beauclerk, review: A new biography of the great British pianist whose own genius destroyed him [print version: A colossus off-key, 10 May 2014, p. R27]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):
He was bottled at a nightclub and had to have facial surgery.
6
UK, Slang To pelt (a musical act on stage, etc.) with bottles as a sign of disapproval.
Meat Loaf was once bottled at Reading Festival.
7
Media, Printing, Publishing Of pages printed several on a sheet: to rotate slightly when the sheet is folded two or more times.
Closely related to creep is the process of bottling. As you may have noticed from your folded sheet of paper, pages don't merely creep when they're folded — they also rotate slightly. This rotation or bottling is caused by the thickness or bulk of the paper.2002, Against the Clock, QuarkXPress 5: Advanced Electronic Documents, page 58:
Etymology From Middle English bottle, botel, buttle, from Old English botl (“building, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōþl, from Proto-Germanic *budlą, *buþlą, *bōþlą (“house, dwelling, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (literally “to swell, grow, thrive, be, live, dwell”). Cognate with North Frisian budel, bodel, bol, boel (“dwelling, inheritable property”), Dutch boedel, boel (“inheritance, estate”), Danish bol (“farm”), Icelandic ból (“dwelling, abode, farm, lair”). Related to Old English bytlan (“to build”). More at build.
Etymology From Middle English botel (“bundle (of hay)”), from Old French botel, ultimately related to modern French botte (“bundle”).
1
Obsolete A bundle, especially of hay; something tied in a bundle.
I was no ſooner in the middle of the pond, but my horſe vaniſht away, and I ſat vpon a bottle of hey, neuer ſo neare drowning in my life: […]1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature E2, recto:
[…]Me-thinkes I haue a great deſire to a bottle of hay: good hay, ſweete hay hath no fellow.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 157, column 1:
2 more examples
Don Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument. / Benedick. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
Can you deny that you've been off and on lately between flunkydom and The Cause, like a donkey between two bottles of hay?1850, [Charles Kingsley], Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC: