Forms: 4 botel, 5 bottelle, botill, botyll, 5–6 botell(e, bottell, 6–7 botle, bottel, 6– bottle. [a. OF. bouteille, also botel, common Romanic = It. bottiglia, Sp. botella, Pg. botelha:—late L. buticula, dim. of late L. butis, buttis vessel, BUTT.]
1. A vessel with a narrow neck for holding liquids, now usually made of glass; originally of leather.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 147. Þes newe hoolis, þat ben maad in oold botelis.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 510. Ȝunder at my sadel boȝe hongeþ o botel, Ful of baume.
1436. E. E. Wills (1882), 108. A pere of botell of siluer.
a. 1529. Skelton, C. Clout, 652. Ye were wonte to drynke Of a lether bottell.
1611. Bible, Jer. xix. 1. Goe and get a potters earthen bottell.
1716. Addison, Freeholder, No. 34. Boisterous Clubs, that … throw Bottles at one another’s Heads.
1836. Dickens, Pickw., vii. Bottles, glasses, and dessert were placed on the table.
b. The quantity (of liquor) that a bottle can hold, a bottleful. Cf. CUP, GLASS. Often attrib. (preceded by a numeral), as a three-bottle man: i.e., who drinks three bottles of wine at a sitting.
1687. [Montague & Prior], Hind & P. Transv., 2. [We] never trouble our heads with National concerns, till the third bottle has taught us as much of Politicks, as the next does of Religion?
1757. Carlyle, in Ramsay, Remin., iii. (ed. 1864). Being a five-bottle man, he could lay them all under the table.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 99. Port wine, of which he then sometimes drank a bottle.
1812. L. Hunt, in Examiner, 11 May, 289/1. Six-bottle Ministers and plenitudinous Aldermen.
1821. Byron, in Moore, Life (1844), xli. 472. Drank half a bottle of some sort of spirits—probably spirits of wine; for what they call brandy, rum, &c. &c. here is nothing but spirits of wine, coloured accordingly.
c. fig. in phrases of Biblical origin (after Job xxxviii. 37, Matt. ix. 17).
1560. Bible (Geneva), Job xxxviii. 37. Who can cause to cease the bottels of heauen?
1599. Broughton’s Lett., iii. 13. The bottles of the clowdes, as Iob calleth them.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., iv. § 2 (1643), 58. The aire is often clear, and those bottles of rain are not always there.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., IV. xlv. 366. These old empty Bottles of Gentilism.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, II. 72. The wide seas … supplying the bottles of heaven with water.
d. To pass the bottle of smoke: to give countenance to a conventional falsehood, to cant.
1855. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxxiv. To help myself in my turn, and pass the bottle of smoke. Ibid. To keep up the pretence as a labour and study, and patience … and all the rest of it—in short, to pass the bottle of smoke, according to rule.
e. To bring up on the bottle: said of an infant reared by means of a feeding-bottle instead of at its mother’s breast.
2. transf. The practice of drinking. Over a (the) bottle: while drinking; at the wine: see OVER.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 2, ¶ 1. My Spark flies to the Bottle for Relief.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 240. Most of his performances were produced over a bottle.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 258. A dull man whose chief pleasures were derived from his dinner and his bottle.
attrib. 1712. Addison, Spect., No. 507, ¶ 2. Our bottle conversation is so infected with them, that [etc.].
† 3. Something resembling a bottle; as: the seed-vessel of a plant, the honey-bag of a bee. Obs.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., vi. (1623), O iij. The Nectar or liquid hony the Bees gather with their tongues, whence they let it downe into their bottles which are within them like unto bladders.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 499. The cocke heads, bells, or bottells which beare the seeds.
4. Comb. and Attrib., as (sense 1) † bottle-ale (also attrib.), † -beer, -belly, -case, † -cider, -conjuror, -cork, † -drink, -faucet, -filter, -maker, -rinsing, -room, -stand, -stopper, works; (sense 2) bottle-bravery, -companion, -friend, -swagger, talk; also bottle-bellied, -like adjs.
1586. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 37. A Booke in Ryme … in commendations of Copper noses or *Bottle Ale.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 140. Away you Bottle-Ale Rascall.
1641. French, Distill., v. (1651), 122. It will tast as quick as *bottle beer.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch-bk., J. Bull, II. 280 (D.). He is like some choleric, *bottle-bellied old spider.
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett. (1814), II. 203. A … thick-headed fellow, with a *bottle belly and a bulbous nose.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., VI. viii. (1849), 290. His fits of *bottle-bravery.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 8, ¶ 1. Sam … is a very good *Bottle-Companion.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 65. *Bottle-conjurors, and persons who will jump down their own throats.
1791. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 6/2. He carried home all the *bottle-corks he could come at.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 164. All such *Bottle-Drinks are infected with a yeasty furious foaming matter.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 1193/1. The *bottle-like form of the Ascidia.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., xii. § 1. Weavers, Horners, *Bottlemakers, and Coppersmiths.
1711. Customs’ Notice, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4862/5. Bottlemakers, and other Dealers in … Skins.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3114/4. Glass Works, Stone and Earthen *Bottle Works.
5. Special comb.: † bottle-bearer, one who carries a bottle, a butler (cf. cup-bearer); bottle-boot, ‘a leather case to hold a bottle while corking’ (Ogilvie); bottle-boy, an apothecary’s assistant; bottle-charger, an apparatus for charging bottles with a liquid under pressure; bottle-chart, a chart of ocean surface currents compiled from data obtained by means of bottles thrown from ships and subsequently picked up at a distance; † bottle-clay, clay of which earthenware bottles were made; † bottle-coaster, a stand on which decanters were passed round the table; bottle-drainer, a frame in which inverted bottles are placed to drain; † bottle-dropsy, dropsy affecting the abdomen only; bottle-feeding vbl. sb., feeding (e.g., of infants) by means of a bottle; bottle-fish, the Saccopharynx ampullaceus, a fish that can inflate its body so as to resemble a leathern bottle; bottle-glass, a bottle-shaped glass (obs.); the coarse kind of glass of which common bottles are made; also attrib.; bottle-gourd, a kind of flask-shaped gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris); bottle-green a., of a dark green color, like bottle-glass; as sb. this color; bottle-heath, bell-heather (Erica tetralix); bottle-house, a building in which bottle-glass is made; bottle-imp, an imaginary imp inhabiting a bottle; bottle-jack, a jack for roasting meat, shaped like a bottle; † bottle-man, a servant or official who has charge of bottles; bottle-nest (= bottle-tit); bottle-ore, a kind of sea-weed (bladder-wrack, Fucus vesiculosus); † bottle-pear, a kind of pear so called from its shape; bottle-rack (= bottle-drainer); † bottle-screw, a corkscrew; † bottle-slider, -slide, a tray for a decanter (= bottle-coaster); bottle-stone, a variety of obsidian; bottle-stoop (Med.), a block of wood with a groove on the upper surface, so sloped that the contents of a bottle placed upon it may be easily removed with a knife in dispensing; bottle-tit, bottle-tom, the Long-tailed Tit (Parus caudatus), from the shape of its nest; bottle-track, the track taken in the ocean by a bottle thrown overboard at a given point; cf. bottle-chart; bottle-washer, one who or a machine that washes bottles; also (humorous) one who looks after affairs, a factotum. Also BOTTLE-BRUSH, etc.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn sommelier, a *bottle bearer.
1656. Trapp, Comm. Matt. ix. 17. Certain heretics called … bottle-bearers, because they bare a bottle on their backs.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, i. (D.). He … fulfilled the ideal of a *bottle-boy.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 122. *Bottle clay, of a bright whitish streaked yellow colour.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda, v. Their father pushing them on together, like two decanters in a *bottle-coaster. Ibid., Angelina, iii. Angelina’s letter was … found in a *bottle-drainer.
1562. Turner, Baths, 3. The *bottel dropsey whych is about the stomack.
c. 1865. Circ. Sc., I. 362/1. *Bottle-feeding will be preferable to the employment of a wet-nurse.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 213. Take therefore a Hawks-Bell … and hang it by a thred within a *Bottle-Glass.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3821/8. A Round Bottle-Glass-House 94 Foot High, and 60 Foot broad.
1765. Delaval, in Phil. Trans., LV. 24. Several pieces of green bottle glass.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 651. The coarsest and simplest form of this manufacture is bottle-glass.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., II. 309. The *bottle-gourds (Lagenaria) … being shaped like flasks.
1816. Coleridge, Statesm. Man. (1817), 360. Black, blue, or *bottle-green.
1862. Enquire Within, 112. From the darkest bottle-green … to the lightest pea-green.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., i. 13. Red fly-catchers, and pink *bottle-heath, and sweet white orchis.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 652. A *bottle-house has generally eight other furnaces.
1822. De Quincey, Confess., Wks. I. 106. The letter would poison my very existence, like the *bottle-imp.
1869. Curzon, Visits Monast., 283. Twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a *bottle jack.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Farew. Tower bottles. Each *Bottleman (but I) Had alwayes a crack’d crowne or a black eye.
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 19. To the porters musicians and bottlemen for their rewardes.
1756. W. Borlase, Observ. State Scilly Isl., 120. The gross *Bottle-ore, which has hollow nobs or pustules in it, is reckoned to make the best kelp.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 439. Peares take their name … of the forme of their neck, as the *Bottle-peares.
1846. French Dom. Cookery, 323. To prevent empty bottles from contracting a bad taste, rinse them as they become empty, and invert them on the *bottle-rack.
1702. Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1367. A close spiral revolution like the Worm of a *Bottle Screw.
1785. Lounger, No. 86. As harmless as e’er a *bottle-slider at the table.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxvi. His head crowned with a bottle-slider, his eye leering with an expression betwixt fun and the effects of wine.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 72. The *Bottle-tit … has a long hanging nest like a bottle.
1865. Derby Mercury, 1 March, 8/5. Before the bottles are filled, they are thoroughly cleaned by the steam bottle-washer.
Mod. colloq. Head cook and bottle-washer of the establishment.
