[f. prec.]
1. trans. To put a bottom to. Cf. BOTTOMED 1.
1544. Coventry Acc., in T. Sharp, Dissert. (1825), 185. Item payd for bottomyng a cressyt vjd.
Mod. Send this saucepan to be new bottomed.
† 2. fig. To find a bottom or foundation for; to serve as a bottom for; to establish firmly. Obs.
1656. J. Bentham, Two … Treat. (1657), To Rdr. Such grounds … as may sufficiently bottome the Negative in the controversie.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. 8. We stand in need of the discoveries of sense … to bottom any sound conjecture concerning the Nature, Causes, and effects of the things in Nature.
1685. F. Spence, House Medici, 248. He affected to bottom his own repute by disclosing the ignorance of others.
b. To bottom upon: to set upon a foundation; to base, found, ground upon; also refl.
1637. Sanderson, Serm., II. 88. Upon this base the apostle had bottomed contentation.
1678. Norris, Coll. Misc. (1699), 241. I may not … bottom myself upon such a centre, as will moulder away.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Matt. xi. 6. Such as … bottom their expectations of heaven and salvation upon him.
1824. Coleridge, Aids Refl., App. xvi. To bottom all our convictions on grounds of right reason.
1860. Forster, Gr. Remonstr., 67. He bottomed it strongly on the precedents and language of law.
† c. intr. (for refl.) To rest as upon a foundation; to be based, grounded. lit. and fig. Obs.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 5 (1810), 19. Smallridge takes its name from … a very slender ridge, and bottoms on three parts thereof.
1660–3. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 212. In all Knowledg which bottoms upon Experience Men should attend indifferently to any kind of Instances.
a. 1704. Locke, Posth. Wks. (1706), 61. Readily take a view of the Argument, and … see where it bottoms.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., I. 12. If examined [they] will be found to bottom on one and the same Foundation, the strength of prejudice.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 20. All the oblique insinuations concerning election bottom in this proposition.
To wind (as a skein). fig. Obs. Cf. BOTTOM sb. 15.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. ii. 53. As you vnwinde her loue from him … You must prouide to bottome it on me.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., vii. 104. As neatlie bottom’d up as nature forth it drew.
4. trans. to reach the bottom of; to drain to the bottom, to empty. Also intr. To reach the bottom.
1808. Cumbrian Ballads, liii. 119. They push’d round a glass like a noggin, And bottom’d the greybeard complete.
1845. [Emma Robinson], Whitehall, I. xii. 135. Ingulph then quaffed at the wine, drinking the provost’s health, who in return bottomed the goblet.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. xi. § 7. A cap … is placed upon the point and pushed into the case till it bottoms.
1882. Jefferies, Bevis, I. ix. 140. He bottomed with his feet and stood upright [in the pond].
b. fig. To get to the bottom of, examine exhaustively, understand thoroughly.
1785. R. Cumberland, in Observer, No. 102. That mystery is thoroughly bottomed and laid open.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. x. 176. Openly declaiming on subjects … which they had never bottomed.
1860. Smiles, Self-Help, vii. 195. He had bottomed the whole inquiry.
