Word.ws English Dictionary

bottom

Syllables: bot·tom/ˈbɒt.əm//ˈbɑ.təm/

bottom noun: the lowest part of anything. Also the ellipsis of bottom quark.

Noun

bottom (countable and uncountable, plural bottoms)

  1. The lowest part of anything.
    • barrels with the bottoms knocked out1849–1861, 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...
    • a great ship’s kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 19, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    base
    Antonyms:
    top
    1. The lowest or last position in a rank.
      • The Red Sox are at the bottom again.
    2. (often, plural) A garment worn to cover the body below the torso.
      • There’s a hole in her pyjama bottoms.
    3. (figuratively, often) The lowest part of a container.
      • 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...2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian
    4. Spirits poured into a glass before adding soda water.
    5. The second half of an inning, the home team's turn at bat.
      • bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs
    6. The bass or baritone instruments of a band.
      • a soda and a bottom of brandy
    7. The working portion of a moldboard-style plow.
      • single-bottom plow
      • three-bottom plow
  2. The remotest or innermost part of something.
    • Near-synonym: fundus (anatomical)
    • There’s a fairy at the bottom of my garden.
    Synonyms:
    fundus
  3. The fundamental part; a basic aspect.
    • get to the bottom of it
    • 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. (US) Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.
    • Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom?
    • 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
  5. (plural-normally) Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.
  6. (euphemistic) The buttocks or anus.
    • 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)
  7. The bed of a body of water.
    Synonyms:
    bed
  8. An abyss.
    • In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode / The Shepherd of the Seas, a Prophet and a God1697, 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. A cargo vessel, a ship.
    • We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...]1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque
  10. Certain 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]...
    • 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. (countable, slang, especially LGBTQ slang) A 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. (broadly, colloquial, countable, slang, especially LGBTQ slang) A 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
  12. (UK, slang, uncountable) Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.
    • lack bottom
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (dated, uncountable) Power 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
  2. A 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
  3. (rare) A trundle or spindle of thread.
    • 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
    • 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
  4. (obsolete) Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To furnish (something) with a bottom.
    • to bottom a chair
  2. (transitive) To 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. (obsolete) To wind (like a ball of thread etc.).
    • 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...
  4. (transitive) To establish or found (something) on or upon.
    • 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
    • those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
  5. (transitive, chiefly passive voice) To lie on the bottom of; to underlie, to lie beneath.
    • 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. (intransitive, obsolete) To be based or grounded.
    • Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms.c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman
  7. (intransitive) To reach or strike against the bottom of something, so as to impede free action.
    • 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. (transitive) To 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.
    • 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. (dated, intransitive) To be the submissive partner in a BDSM relationship.
  11. (intransitive, especially LGBTQ slang) To take on the receptive role during intercourse.
    • I've never bottomed in my life.
    • 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

Adjective

bottom (not comparable)

  1. The lowest or last place or position.
    • Those files should go on the bottom shelf.
  2. Relating to the genitals.
    • bottom dysphoria
    • bottom surgery

Proper noun capitalized: Bottom

Bottom (plural Bottoms)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

bottom is also the ellipsis of bottom quark.

bottom meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Kannada

bottom in Hindi

lowest part
निचला niclā
valley
घाटी ghāṭī
euphemistic: buttocks or anus
नितंब nitamb, पिछवाड़ा pichvāṛā, चूतड़ cūtaṛ

bottom in Marathi

BDSM: submissive in sadomasochism
बॉटम bŏṭam

bottom in Telugu

దిగువ

bottom in Kannada

ಕೆಳಭಾಗ
More languagesFewer languages
bottom in Odia
ତଳଭାଗ
bottom in Nepali
तल, तलको
bottom in Tagalog
papuwet
bottom in Arabic
قَاع qāʕ, قَعْر qaʕr, سَالِب sālib
bottom in Indonesian
bawah, boti, lembah
bottom in Persian
ته tah, بن bon
bottom in Thai
กก gòk, ก้น gôn, โคน koon, เกย์ควีน gee-kwiin
bottom in Vietnamese
đáy

Examples of bottom in a sentence

  • Footers appear at the bottoms of pages.
  • I walked to the bottom of the street.
  • There was a pit in the bottom of my stomach.
  • 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]...
  • 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.2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:

All 40 example sentences with bottom

Synonyms of bottom

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bottom

Forms of bottom

Noun
pluralbottoms
alternative misspellingbuttom
alternative form (dialectal)botton
alternative form (obsolete)bottome
Verb
third-person singular presentbottoms
present participlebottoming
past participlebottomed
pastbottomed
Proper noun
pluralBottoms

Past tense of bottom: bottomed

Plural of bottom: bottoms

Origin of bottom

PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-? Proto-Indo-European *-mḗn Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn Proto-Germanic *butmaz Proto-West Germanic *botm Old English botm Middle English botme English bottom From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz (“bottom; ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognates Cognate with Yola bothom, bottom (“bottom”), Saterland Frisian Boudem (“floor; ground”), West Frisian boaiem (“floor; ground”), Dutch bodem, boom, boôm (“bottom; ground, soil”), German Boden (“floor; ground; soil”), Limburgish baom (“bottom; ground, soil”), Luxembourgish Buedem (“bottom; earth, soil”), Vilamovian bödum (“bottom; ground”), Danish bund (“bottom”), Elfdalian buottn (“bottom”), Faroese botnur (“bottom”), Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk botn (“bottom”), Norwegian Bokmål botn, bunn (“bottom”), Swedish botten (“bottom”); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic bonn (“base, bottom; sole (of foot)”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar; the bottom of...

* As an English surname, from the noun bottom. Compare Botham. * As a French name, mistranslated from Lafond, in which Old French la fond (“the fountain”) is confused with modern le fond (“the bottom”).

Words formed from bottom

Phrases with bottom

115 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about bottom

What does bottom mean?
Bottom means the lowest part of anything.
What is bottom in Hindi?
Bottom in Hindi is निचला (niclā), घाटी (ghāṭī), नितंब (nitamb). See Bottom meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bottom in a sentence?
Footers appear at the bottoms of pages.
What part of speech is bottom?
Bottom can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bottom?
Bottom is pronounced /ˈbɒt.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of bottom?
The plural of bottom is bottoms.

Words near bottom in the dictionary

  1. bottling up
  2. bottlings
  3. bottlo
  4. bottlos
  5. Botto
  6. bottom
  7. bottom age
  8. bottom aged
  9. bottom antiquark
  10. bottom antiquarks
  11. bottom bitch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bottom (page history and authors); Bottom (page history and authors); bottom (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bottom (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bottom (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bottom (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bottom.wav, en-us-bottom.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bottom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bottom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.