bottle it

verb

To suppress an action or expression, especially when due to lack of courage.

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Meanings

verbbottle it (third-person singular simple present bottles it, present participle bottling it, simple past and past participle bottled it)

present singular third person bottles it · participle present bottling it · participle past bottled it · past bottled it

  1. CockneyUKinformalslangTo suppress an action or expression, especially when due to lack of courage.
  2. CockneyUKinformalslangTo lose one's nerve.
  3. CockneyUKinformalslangTo run away, especially when due to lack of courage.
  4. CockneyUKespeciallyinformalslanghobbiesTo fail in an embarrassing way in a crucial situation, especially due to nerves.

    If you want to win Wimbledon, you have to be controlled mentally, but he's too volatile. He's just not a level-headed guy out there. He's had many chances and he's always bottled it.

    2024 June 20, Katherine Reilly, Match Point: an enemies to lovers tennis romance perfect for fans of Wimbledon, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN
    1 more example

    For a while, it was a three-horse race and, if anything, it looked like José Mourinho's Chelsea were the team to beat. Chelsea bottled it, Liverpool beat Manchester City and the title was theirs to lose ... which they did in that match against Chelsea.

    2022 October 6, James Richardson, The Totally Football Book, Hachette UK, →ISBN

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
bottle outchicken outlose one's nerve

Origin

From Cockney rhyming slang bottle and glass, originally meaning arse. lose one's nerve was vulgarly lose one's arse, euphemised to lose one's bottle, clipped to bottle and subsequently given a dummy pronoun. See bottle.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

bottle it. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bottle%20it

MLA

“bottle it.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bottle%20it. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bottle it,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bottle%20it.

Source: bottle it on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.