bottom
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɒ.təm/
ipa: /ˈbɑ.təm/
ipa: [ˈbɑɾəm]
ipa: /ˈbɔ.təm/
rhymes: -ɒtəm
Forms: form: bottoms
form: botton
Etymology: PIE word
 *bʰudʰmḗn
From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, 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 first attested in 1794; the verb “to reach the bottom of” is first attested in 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.
Senses: examples: text: barrels with the bottoms knocked out
ref: 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:
text: a great ship’s kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 19, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
text: At the bottom of the staircase I stood and stared at the worn steps, and Ayesha, turning, saw me.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms.
ref: 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:
text: Footers appear at the bottoms of pages.
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
The lowest or last position in a rank.
examples: text: There’s a hole in her pyjama bottoms.
topics: business
clothing
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
textiles
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
A garment worn to cover the body below the torso.
coordinate_terms: top
examples: text: 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%.
ref: 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
The lowest part of a container.
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
Spirits poured into a glass before adding soda water.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
The second half of an inning, the home team's turn at bat.
examples: text: a soda and a bottom of brandy
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
synonyms: base
antonyms: top
glosses: The lowest part of anything.
The bass or baritone instruments of a band.
examples: text: There’s a fairy at the bottom of my garden.
text: I walked to the bottom of the street.
glosses: The remotest or innermost part of something.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
glosses: The fundamental part; a basic aspect.
examples: text: Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom?
text: The horses staled in a small brook that runs in a bottom, betwixt two hills.
ref: 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
text: the bottoms and the high grounds
ref: 1812, Amos Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana:
glosses: Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.
synonyms: bottomland
glosses: Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.
examples: text: 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!!
ref: 1986 April 10, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):
synonyms: word: 'tocks
word: arse
word: arse cheeks
word: ass
word: ass cheeks
word: back
word: backside
word: batty
word: behind
word: blessed assurance
word: booty
word: botty
word: bottom
word: bum
word: bum cheeks
word: buns
word: butt
word: butt cheeks
word: buttocks
word: caboose
word: cheeks
word: derriere
word: fanny
word: fourth point of contact
word: gluteus maximus
word: glutes
word: gooseberry-grinder
word: gyatt
raw_tags: used jokingly by generation alpha preteens
word: heinie
word: hiney
word: hinderlin
word: hurdies
word: jacksie
word: keester
word: keister
word: moon
word: moneymaker
word: nates
word: nether cheeks
word: patootie
word: peach
word: posterior
word: rear
word: rear end
word: rump
word: seat
word: sit upon
word: tail
word: toches
word: tush
word: tushie
glosses: The buttocks or anus.
synonyms: bed
glosses: The bed of a body of water.
examples: text: In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode / The Shepherd of the Seas, a Prophet and a God
ref: 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:
glosses: An abyss.
examples: text: We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...]
ref: 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A cargo vessel, a ship.
examples: text: My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.
ref: 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]:
text: Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped.
ref: 1773 November 8, Bancroft, Boston Post-Boy:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 6:
topics: BDSM
lifestyle
sexuality
synonyms: sub
submissive
coordinate_terms: top
dom
glosses: A submissive partner in a sadomasochistic relationship.
topics: BDSM
lifestyle
sexuality
synonyms: sub
submissive
coordinate_terms: top
dom
glosses: A submissive partner in a sadomasochistic relationship.
A submissive partner in a sexual relationship.
examples: text: James and Lukas would make a great couple if they weren't both bottoms.
synonyms: catcher
pathic
zenana
hypernyms: doee
coordinate_terms: top
qualifier: especially LGBTQ slang
glosses: A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.
examples: text: lack bottom
glosses: Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2017, Les Savage, The Teton Bunch: A Western Trio:
glosses: Power of endurance.
examples: text: the [silk]worms will fasten themselves, and make their bottoms, which in about fourteen days are finished.
ref: 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:
glosses: A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
examples: text: Edward Hoby of Bisham in Berkshire, Esq; Or, a Fess, Sable, between three Hobby-Hawks, proper; otherwise, Azure, three Bottoms in Fess, Gules.
ref: 1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 207:
text: BOTTOM, a trundle or quill of gold thread. See TRUNDLE. Argent three bottoms, in fess gules, the thread or; name, Hoby, of Badland.
ref: 1866, Hugh Clark, An Introduction to Heraldry ... Eighteenth edition. Revised and corrected by J. R. Planché, page 99:
text: [...] three “bottoms or clewes” (elsewhere called “spindles” or “fusils upon slippers”) in fesse gules threaded or, for Badlond;
ref: 1873, Henry Sydney Grazebrook, The Heraldry of Worcestershire, page 285:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A trundle or spindle of thread.
glosses: Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
hypernyms: flavor
glosses: Ellipsis of bottom quark.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: ambulance at the bottom of a cliff
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: antibottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: anti-bottom quark
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: artichoke bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: at bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: at the bottom of
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: at the bottom of the pile
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bell-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bell-bottom trousers
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bet one's bottom dollar
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bikini bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: black bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: black bottom pie
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bot
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom age
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-age
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-aged
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom antiquark
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom bitch
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom bracket
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom burp
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom dead center
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom dog
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom dollar
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom drawer
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom drawer syndrome
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom drop
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-dwelling
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom edge
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-end
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomer
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom fall out
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom feeder
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-feeder
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom feeding
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom fermentation
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom fishing
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-fishing
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomful
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom gear
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom girl
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom growth
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom hand
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-hat transform
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom heat
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomhood
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom kill
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomland
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomless
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom line
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom liner
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom man
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-most
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomness
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the barrel
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the harbour
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the hour
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the line
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the ninth
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the sea
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom of the table
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom on
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomonium
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom order
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom out
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom pair
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-post
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-poster
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom power
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom quark
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomry
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom sheet
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-shelf
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottoms up
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottoms up squat
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom the house
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom time
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom type
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-up
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom-upwards
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomward
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomwards
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomwear
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottom woman
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottomy
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: bottonium
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: cauldron bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: crawl-a-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: deasphalter bottoms
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: dyke bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: false bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: fidget-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: flat-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: flog-bottomist
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Foggy Bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: the bottom of one's heart
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: top to bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: front bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: get to the bottom of
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: glass-bottom boat
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Hackney Bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: hardbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: hit bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: hit rock bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: in the bottom of the bag
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Ironbottom Sound
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: kettle bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: kick up the bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: like the bottom of a birdcage
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Lulsgate Bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: oven bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: piggin bottoms
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: power bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: put the bottom rail on top
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: race to the bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: river bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: rock-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: saggar maker's bottom knocker
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: salt bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sbottom squark
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: scrape at the bottom of the barrel
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: scrape the bottom of the barrel
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: seabottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Six Mile Bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: smooth as a baby's bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: soft as a baby's bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: softbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: stand on one's own bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: subbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sulfur-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sulfur-bottom whale
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sulphur-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sulphur-bottom whale
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: sulphur bottom whale
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: top from the bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: tops-and-bottoms
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: top-to-bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: touch bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: unbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: unbottomed
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: underbottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: Westley Bottom
sense: Terms derived from bottom (noun)
word: wind up one's bottoms