Word.ws English Dictionary

bottom of the barrel

bottom of the barrel noun: the lowest possible level of a person or thing in terms of character or quality; also, a person or thing at such a level.

Noun

the bottom of the barrel

  1. (derogatory, figuratively) The lowest possible level of a person or thing in terms of character or quality; also, a person or thing at such a level.
    • He went from being at the bottom of the barrel to being an inch above the bottom of the barrel.
    • Here is the first new collection of Rohmer stories in years, and they are the absolute bottom of the barrel! Detective stories, romances, war stories — everything but the "strange stories" advertised in the title.2007, Robert Reginald, Douglas Menville, Forgotten Fantasy: Issue #2, December 1970, page 32

Examples of bottom of the barrel in a sentence

  • The bottom of the barrel as far as accommodation in the Ville Nouvelle goes.2010, Donna Wheeler et al., Tunisia, page 212:
  • But it’s proper bottom of the barrel, a celebrity Britain’s Got Talent.2023 March 5, Miranda Sawyer, quoting Jason Williamson, “Sleaford Mods: ‘The UK is like a crazy golf course – all we’ve got left are...

Words formed from bottom of the barrel

Questions about bottom of the barrel

What does bottom of the barrel mean?
Bottom of the barrel means the lowest possible level of a person or thing in terms of character or quality; also, a person or thing at such a level.
How do you use bottom of the barrel in a sentence?
The bottom of the barrel as far as accommodation in the Ville Nouvelle goes.
What part of speech is bottom of the barrel?
Bottom of the barrel is a noun.

Words near bottom of the barrel in the dictionary

  1. bottom liners
  2. bottom lines
  3. bottom liver
  4. bottom livers
  5. bottom man
  6. bottom of the barrel
  7. bottom of the harbour
  8. bottom of the hour
  9. bottom of the line
  10. bottom of the ninth
  11. bottom of the sea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bottom of the barrel (page history and authors). 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.

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