bottom

plural bottoms · alternative dialectal botton · alternative obsolete bottome · alternative misspelling buttom

1. countableuncountableThe lowest part of anything.

   Footers appear at the bottoms of pages.

   4 more examples

   barrels with the bottoms knocked out

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   a great ship’s kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 19, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

   At the bottom of the staircase I stood and stared at the worn steps, and Ayesha, turning, saw me.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms.

   1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   1. countableuncountableThe lowest or last position in a rank.

      The Red Sox are at the bottom again.

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   2. countableoftenpluraluncountablebusinessA garment worn to cover the body below the torso.

      There’s a hole in her pyjama bottoms.

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   3. countablefigurativelyoftenuncountableThe lowest part of a container.

      1 more example

      In Ireland, where 14.5% of the population are jobless, emigration has climbed steadily since 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the bottom fell out of the Irish housing market. In the 12 months to April this year, 40,200 Irish passport-holders left, up from 27,700 the previous year, according to the central statistics office. Irish nationals were by far the largest constituent group among emigrants, at almost 53%.

      2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   4. countableuncountableSpirits poured into a glass before adding soda water.

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   5. countableuncountableball gamesThe second half of an inning, the home team's turn at bat.

      bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   6. countableuncountableentertainmentThe bass or baritone instruments of a band.

      a soda and a bottom of brandy

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

   7. countableuncountableagricultureThe working portion of a moldboard-style plow.

      three-bottom plow

      1 more example

      single-bottom plow

      Synonyms: base · Antonyms: top

2. countableuncountableThe remotest or innermost part of something.

   Near-synonym: fundus (anatomical)

   3 more examples

   There’s a fairy at the bottom of my garden.

   I walked to the bottom of the street.

   There was a pit in the bottom of my stomach.

   Synonyms: fundus

3. countableuncountableThe fundamental part; a basic aspect.

   get to the bottom of it

   1 more example

   Thereupon Billali did a curious thing. Down he went, that venerable-looking old gentleman - for Billali is a gentleman at the bottom - down on to his hands and knees, and in this undignified position, with his long white beard trailing on the ground, he began to creep into the apartment beyond.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

4. UScountableuncountableLow-lying land; a valley or hollow.

   Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom?

   2 more examples

   The horses staled in a small brook that runs in a bottom, betwixt two hills.

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

   the bottoms and the high grounds

   1812, Amos Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana

5. countableplural normallyuncountableLow-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.

   Synonyms: bottomland, bottomlands, river bottom

6. countableeuphemisticuncountableThe buttocks or anus.First known use 1794

   Calvin, if you shoot that paper clip at me, I'll get your bottom hauled to the principal's office so fast you'll think you were in a time warp!!

   1986 April 10, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)

   Synonyms: 'tocks, arse, arse cheeks, ass, ass cheeks, back, backside, batty

7. countableuncountableThe bed of a body of water.

   Synonyms: bed

8. countableuncountableAn abyss.

   In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode / The Shepherd of the Seas, a Prophet and a God

   1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

9. countableuncountablenauticalA cargo vessel, a ship.

   We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...]

   1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque

10. countableuncountablenauticalCertain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.

    My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.

    c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

    1 more example

    Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped.

    1773 November 8, Bancroft, Boston Post-Boy

11. countableslangespecially LGBTQ slangA person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.

    James and Lukas would make a great couple if they weren't both bottoms.

    Synonyms: catcher, pathic, zenana

    1. broadlycolloquialcountableslangespecially LGBTQ slangA sexual submissive.

       Since what I wanted to do was be a bottom, a masochist, I had to learn that you could do it and be safe, that you could do it and not sign your life away, that you could do it by agreement, and that it was still fun.

       1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 6

       Synonyms: catcher, pathic, zenana, sub, submissive

12. UKslanguncountableCharacter, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.

    lack bottom

13. dateduncountablePower of endurance.

    This was why Dee had always ridden a buckskin; a man following his kind of trails needed a horse with bottom, and a line-back like this one never wore out.

    2017, Les Savage, The Teton Bunch: A Western Trio

14. countableuncountableA ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.

    the [silk]worms will fasten themselves, and make their bottoms, which in about fourteen days are finished.

    1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

15. countablerareuncountablegovernmentA trundle or spindle of thread.

    BOTTOM, a trundle or quill of gold thread. See TRUNDLE. Argent three bottoms, in fess gules, the thread or; name, Hoby, of Badland.

    1866, Hugh Clark, An Introduction to Heraldry ... Eighteenth edition. Revised and corrected by J. R. Planché, page 99

    2 more examples

    Edward Hoby of Bisham in Berkshire, Esq; Or, a Fess, Sable, between three Hobby-Hawks, proper; otherwise, Azure, three Bottoms in Fess, Gules.

    1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 207

    [...] three “bottoms or clewes” (elsewhere called “spindles” or “fusils upon slippers”) in fesse gules threaded or, for Badlond;

    1873, Henry Sydney Grazebrook, The Heraldry of Worcestershire, page 285

16. countableobsoleteuncountableDregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
17. abbreviationcountableellipsisparticleuncountablenatural sciencesEllipsis of bottom quark.

present singular third person bottoms · participle present bottoming · participle past bottomed · past bottomed · alternative dialectal botton · alternative obsolete bottome · alternative misspelling buttom

1. transitiveTo furnish (something) with a bottom.First known use 16th c.

   to bottom a chair

2. transitiveTo pour spirits into (a glass to be topped up with soda water).

   We shall bid that thoughtful waiter place beside him, near and handy, / Large supplies of soda water, tumblers bottomed well with brandy, […]

   1866, “Dirge of the Drinker”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, page 645

3. obsoleteTo wind (like a ball of thread etc.).First known use 17th c.

   As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest it should rauel and be good to none, / You must prouide to bottome it on me.

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

4. transitiveTo establish or found (something) on or upon.First known use 17th c.

   those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

   2 more examples

   But an absurd opinion concerning the king’s hereditary right to the crown does not prejudice one that is rational, and bottomed upon solid principles of law and policy.

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC

   Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the President must obey outstanding executive orders, even when bottomed on the Constitution, until they are revoked.

   2001, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Executive Orders and Presidential Directives, p.59

5. transitivechiefly passive voiceTo lie on the bottom of; to underlie, to lie beneath.First known use 18th c.

   My first night in America was spent in a motel with plywood over its windows, its pool bottomed with garbage sacks.

   1989, B Mukherjee, Jasmine

6. intransitiveobsoleteTo be based or grounded.First known use 17th–19th c.

   'c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms.

7. intransitiveengineeringTo reach or strike against the bottom of something, so as to impede free action.First known use 19th c.

   allowance at the bottom of blind bores for the chamfered tip of the reamer will obviate additional operations with shouldering or bottoming reamers to completely finish the entire length of a hole.

   1977, Roger W. Autor Bolz, Production Processes: The Productivity Handbook, page 12-81

8. transitiveTo reach the bottom of something.

   Squeaker's dog sniffed and barked joyfully around them till his licking efforts to bottom a salmon tin sent him careering in a muzzled frenzy, that caused the younger woman's thick lips to part grinningly till he came too close.

   1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 21

9. To fall to the lowest point.First known use 19th c.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on September 24, 2001. The CRB Index bottomed on October 24.

   2004, John J. Murphy, Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Market Relationships, page 119

10. datedintransitiveBDSMTo be the submissive partner in a BDSM relationship.First known use 20th c.
11. intransitiveespecially LGBTQ slangTo take on the receptive role during intercourse.First known use 20th c.

    I've never bottomed in my life.

    1 more example

    Daw hadn’t bottomed in a long time. He hadn’t had sex in a year.

    2023, Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans, Jonathan Cape, page 301

alternative dialectal botton · alternative obsolete bottome · alternative misspelling buttom

1. not comparableThe lowest or last place or position.

   Those files should go on the bottom shelf.

2. not comparableRelating to the genitals.

   bottom surgery

   1 more example

   bottom dysphoria

plural Bottoms

1. A surname.