1. trans. To divest of a bottom or foundation; † fig., to deprive of support or stay; to unsettle or make unstable.
1598. Florio, Diffondare, to vnbottom.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, 156. I am willing to be informed,… yea, to unbottome my selfe of my old rotten mixtures.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. 252. This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottom a sinner, and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself.
1693. G. Firmin, Rev. Mr. Davis’s Vind., i. 6. Commonly when we speak of unbottoming a Man from himself, we mean [from] his own goodness.
2. intr. To make oneself bare-breeched.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, News fr. Nerwcastle, 45. Then you’ll unbottom, though December blow, And sweat i’ th’ midst of Isicles and Snow.
