different between bottle vs bottles

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?.t?l/, [?b?t???]
• • (Cockney) IPA^(key): /b?.??w/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: b?t??l, IPA^(key): /?b?.t?l/, [?b?.???]
• Rhymes: -?t?l
• Hyphenation: bot?tle

Etymology 1

From Middle English botel (“bottle, flask, wineskin”), from Old French boteille (Modern French bouteille), from Medieval Latin butticula, ultimately of disputed origin. Probably a diminutive of Late Latin buttis. Compare also Low German Buddel and Old High German b?til (whence German Beutel). Doublet of botija.

Noun

bottle (plural bottles)

1. A container, typically made of glass or plastic and having a tapered neck, used primarily for holding liquids.

2. The contents of such a container.

3. A container with a rubber nipple used for giving liquids to infants, a baby bottle.

4. (Britain, informal) (originally "bottle and glass" meaning "ass") Nerve, courage.

5. (attributive, of a person with a particular hair color) A container of hair dye, hence with one’s hair color produced by dyeing.

6. (obsolete) A bundle, especially of hay; something tied in a bundle.
   • End of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale

     Is that a Cook of London, with mischance? / Do him come forth, he knoweth his penance; / For he shall tell a tale, by my fay, / Although it be not worth a bottle hay.

   • 1599, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 1

     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.

   • 1590s, Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

     I was no sooner in the middle of the pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life.
7. (figuratively) Intoxicating liquor; alcohol.
8. (printing) the tendency of pages printed several on a sheet to rotate slightly when the sheet is folded two or more times.

Synonyms

• (for feeding babies): baby's bottle, feeding bottle, nursing bottle (US)
• (courage): balls, courage, guts, nerve, pluck

Antonyms

• (courage): cowardice

Derived terms

Related terms

• butler
• butt (large cask)

Descendants

Translations

See also

• flagon
• flask
• jar

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To seal (a liquid) into a bottle for later consumption. Also fig.
2. (transitive, Britain) To feed (an infant) baby formula.

3. (Britain, slang) To refrain from doing (something) at the last moment because of a sudden loss of courage.

4. (Britain, slang, sports) To throw away a leading position.

5. (Britain, slang) To strike (someone) with a bottle.

6. (Britain, slang) To pelt (a musical act on stage, etc.) with bottles as a sign of disapproval.

Derived terms

• bottle away
• bottle it
• bottle off
• bottle out
• bottle up
• bottling

Translations

References

• “bottle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present. (premium)

Etymology 2

From Middle English bottle, botel, buttle, from Old English botl, bold (“abode, house, dwelling-place”), from Proto-West Germanic *b?þl, from Proto-Germanic *budl?, *buþl?, *b?þl? (“house, dwelling, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??w- (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 byldan (“to build, construct”). More at build.

Noun

bottle (plural bottles)

1. (Britain, dialectal or obsolete) A dwelling; habitation.
2. (Britain, dialectal) A building; house.

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?tl?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?tl?z/
• Hyphenation: bot?tles

Noun

bottles

1. plural of bottle

Verb

bottles

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of bottle

Anagrams

• boltest, setbolt