bottom

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See also: Bottom

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognate with Dutch bodem, German Boden, Icelandic botn, Danish bund; also Irish bonn (“sole (of foot)”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French). The sense “posterior of a person” is from 1794; the “verb to reach the bottom of” is from 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

bottom (countable and uncountable, plural bottoms)

  1. The lowest part of anything.
    • (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      barrels with the bottom knocked out
    • (Can we date this quote by Washington Irving and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms.
    Footers appear at the bottoms of pages.
    1. A garment worn to cover below the torso.
  2. (uncountable, British, slang) Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.
    lack bottom
  3. (British, US) A valley, often used in place names.
    Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom?
    • (Can we date this quote by Stoddard and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      the bottoms and the high grounds
  4. The buttocks or anus.
  5. (nautical) A cargo vessel, a ship.
  6. (nautical) Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.
    • (Can we date this quote by Bancroft and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped.
  7. (baseball) The second half of an inning, the home team's turn at bat.
  8. (BDSM) A submissive in sadomasochistic sexual activity.
  9. (LGBT, slang) A person with a preference for being penetrated during sexual intercourse.
  10. (physics) A bottom quark.
  11. (often figuratively) The lowest part of a container.
    • 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian‎[1]:
      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%.
  12. A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
    • (Can we date this quote by Mortimer and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Silkworms finish their bottoms in […] fifteen days.
  13. The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, or sea.
  14. An abyss.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  15. (obsolete) Power of endurance.
    a horse of a good bottom
  16. (obsolete) Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)
  17. (usually: bottoms or bottomland) Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Hyponyms of bottom (noun)

Derived terms

Terms derived from bottom (noun)
Terms related to bottom (noun)

Descendants

  • → French: bottom

Translations

garment worn on lower body

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physics: bottom quark — see bottom quark
bed of a body of water
abyss — see abyss
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

bottom (third-person singular simple present bottoms, present participle bottoming, simple past and past participle bottomed)

  1. To fall to the lowest point.
    • 2004, John J. Murphy, Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Market Relationships, page 119:
      The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on September 24, 2001. The CRB Index bottomed on October 24.
  2. To establish firmly; to found or justify on or upon something; to set on a firm footing; to set or rest on or upon something which provides support or authority.
    • (Can we date this quote by Atterbury and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Action is supposed to be bottomed upon principle.
    • (Can we date this quote by South and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state
    • 2001, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Executive Orders and Presidential Directives, p.59.
      Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the President must obey outstanding executive orders, even when bottomed on the Constitution, until they are revoked.
  3. (intransitive) To rest, as upon an ultimate support; to be based or grounded.
    • (Can we date this quote by John Locke and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Find on what foundation any proposition bottoms.
  4. (intransitive) To reach or impinge against the bottom, so as to impede free action, as when the point of a cog strikes the bottom of a space between two other cogs, or a piston the end of a cylinder.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      As you unwind her love from him, / Lest it should ravel and be good to none, / You must provide to bottom it on me.
  6. (transitive) To furnish with a bottom.
    to bottom a chair
  7. (intransitive) To be the submissive in a BDSM relationship or roleplay.
  8. (intransitive) To be anally penetrated in gay sex.
    I've never bottomed in my life.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

bottom (not comparable)

  1. The lowest or last place or position.
    Those files should go on the bottom shelf.

Translations

See also

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bottom.

Adjective

bottom (plural bottoms)

  1. (LGBT, slang) bottom (passive in role)

Synonyms

Portuguese

Noun

bottom m (plural bottons)

  1. button (a badge worn on clothes)

Synonyms

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