bottom

Less common meanings

11. 11
    far endnouncountable or uncountable

    The remotest or innermost part of something, especially the far end of a garden, street, or field.

    Their cottage stands at the very bottom of the lane, where the pavement gives way to a farm track.

    The post office is at the bottom of the street, past the church.

    UsageUsually at the bottom of the garden, street or road, meaning the far end even on flat ground.

    Similarend, foot

    Oppositetop

    Note

    Here the word means the far end rather than the low end. The bottom of the garden is the part that lies farthest from the house, and the bottom of the street is its far end, whether or not the ground slopes.

12. 12
    receptive (gay sex)nounslangcountable

    In sex, the partner who takes the receptive or submissive role, as opposed to the top, whether in gay sex, BDSM, or a relationship generally.

    Dating apps let users list themselves as a top, a bottom, or versatile.

    He didn't mind being called a bottom, but he hated the stereotypes.

    Oppositetop

    Note

    Slang at home in LGBTQ speech, especially among gay men. It works as an identity label as much as a description, which is why friends can quip that two men would make a great couple if they weren't both bottoms. It belongs to casual talk; in neutral or formal prose, a plain description is the safer choice.

13. 13
    verbslangintransitive

    To take the receptive or submissive role in sex or in a BDSM scene or relationship.

    The character admits he hasn't bottomed in years.

    Whether to top or bottom is a question the app asks up front.

    Oppositetop

    Note

    Gay slang turned the noun into a verb, and the verb has since crossed into literary fiction. Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans (2023) uses it without comment: 'Daw hadn't bottomed in a long time.' It is intransitive and pairs with top. In casual speech it is ordinary; clinical or formal writing is better served by a descriptive phrase. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Brandon Taylor wrote The Late Americans, first published in 2023. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Late Americans contains the quoted sentence, establishing the verb's appearance in literary fiction. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    genitaladjective

    In transgender contexts, relating to the genitals (as in 'bottom surgery' and 'bottom dysphoria') as opposed to 'top', which relates to the chest.

    Some patients report bottom dysphoria long before they seek treatment.

    Insurance covered his top surgery but not the bottom surgery.

    Similargenital

    Oppositetop

    Note

    Transgender health care uses the word before a noun, most often in bottom surgery and bottom dysphoria, with top as its partner for the chest. It is a plain, respectful alternative to clinical vocabulary. The word is the ordinary lowest-part meaning put to work by position: it says where on the body, not what, and the pairing with top does the rest. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The bottom/top pairing distinguishes the genital and chest regions by their position on the body. en.wikipedia.org
15. 15
    verbtransitive

    To reach or hit the bottom of something, such as a well, hole, or cylinder, so that it can go no lower.

    The borehole bottomed in hard granite at just over two hundred meters.

    Use a shorter bolt, or it will bottom in the blind hole before the bracket is tight.

16. 16
    fit a seatverbtransitive

    To provide something with a bottom; especially to fit a chair with a seat or a vessel with a base.

    A cooper would bottom each barrel before fitting the hoops.

    The kitchen chairs had been bottomed with fresh straw.

    Note

    A craft verb made directly from the noun. To bottom a chair is to give it a seat, the same kind of bottom that Washington Irving's chairs have in leather or worsted under the root sense. The past participle often serves as a description in its own right, so a chair can simply be called bottomed with straw. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • To bottom a chair means to provide it with a seat. en.wiktionary.org
    • Washington Irving describes chairs with leather and worsted bottoms. gutenberg.org
17. 17
    base onverbtransitive

    To establish or found something on a basis; to ground it on principles, evidence, or authority, now formal, chiefly legal.

    The claim was bottomed on a statute that had since been repealed.

    Courts bottom such rulings on precedent rather than policy.

    Similarground, base, found, predicate

    Note

    Legal and argumentative prose keeps this verb alive, mostly in the passive with on or upon. Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) defends an opinion 'bottomed upon solid principles of law and policy'. Testimony before a 2001 House Judiciary subcommittee speaks of executive orders 'bottomed on the Constitution'. Robert South's sermons show the active voice: many 'bottom their eternal state' on false grounds. In everyday prose, based on does the job. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Edmund Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France, first published in 1790. commons.wikimedia.org
    • Burke defends an opinion using the quoted wording. en.wikisource.org
    • The wording appears in Bruce Fein's prepared statement for the March 22, 2001 hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. commdocs.house.gov
    • The hearing transcript contains the exact phrase 'bottomed on the Constitution', referring to executive orders. commdocs.house.gov
    • Robert South's sermons use 'bottom their eternal state' in the active voice concerning false grounds. ccel.org
18. 18
    line the floorverbtransitive

    To lie on the bottom of something, to underlie it; chiefly passive, 'bottomed with', describing what covers or forms the base.

    The old quarry pool, bottomed with pale clay, looked milky green in the afternoon light.

    Each tide pool was bottomed with pink pebbles and tiny shells that glittered whenever the sun came out.

    Similarunderlie, line, floor

    Note

    A verb that lives in the passive: a place is bottomed with whatever covers its floor. Mukherjee's Jasmine (1989) shows the pattern exactly, with a motel pool 'bottomed with garbage sacks'. The container or place is the subject, and with introduces the layer. The active form, with the layer as subject, is possible but much rarer. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Bharati Mukherjee wrote Jasmine, first published in 1989. openlibrary.org
    • The novel describes a motel pool using the exact words 'bottomed with garbage sacks'. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    cargo shipnouncountable or uncountable

    In nautical and commercial use, a cargo vessel or ship, especially considered as a carrier of goods.

    The company chartered a single bottom to carry its whole cargo of cotton to Liverpool.

    Grain exporters complained that there were too few bottoms available to carry the harvest overseas.

    Similarship, vessel, hull

    Note

    A ship seen as a carrier of goods, a word of trade and transport as much as of the sea. Robert Louis Stevenson's Virginibus Puerisque (1881) turns it into a figure for human risk: 'We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters.' Keep it apart from a ship's underwater hull, which names a part of a ship rather than the whole vessel. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Virginibus Puerisque, first published as a book in 1881. en.wikisource.org
    • The quoted words occur in Stevenson's Virginibus Puerisque and figuratively describe the risks of human life. gutenberg.org
20. 20
    backbonenoundatedBritishuncountable

    In British slang, solid character: reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity, or sound judgment; chiefly in 'to lack bottom' or 'to have bottom'.

    A candidate may be clever and still lack bottom.

    For all his charm, the new captain lacked bottom, and the players knew it.

    Similarbackbone, character, grit, integrity, mettle

    Note

    A quality rather than a thing: someone has bottom or lacks it, much as they have or lack backbone. Because the word is uncountable in this sense, it rarely takes a or a plural. As British slang it sounds most natural in the negative, as in he lacks bottom, where it passes judgment on someone's steadiness or integrity. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The absolute prohibition on a is too strong: Boswell records Johnson describing a woman's sound judgment as 'a bottom of good sense'. Normally uncountable is a safer formulation. gutenberg.org
21. 21
    noun

    Short for bottom quark: the third-generation quark with charge −1/3, symbol b.
22. 22
    noun

    In music, the bass or baritone instruments of a band, taken together.
23. 23
    noun

    A measure of liquor put in a glass first, then topped up with soda water.
24. 24
    noun

    Thread or yarn wound into a ball or loose coil, or a cocoon spun by an insect.
25. 25
    nounrare

    A spool or bobbin with thread wound on it.

    BOTTOM, a trundle or quill of gold thread. See TRUNDLE. Argent three bottoms, in fess gules, the thread or; name, Hoby, of Badland.

    1866, Hugh Clark, An Introduction to Heraldry ... Eighteenth edition. Revised and corrected by J. R. Planché
26. 26
    nounobsolete

    The sludge or residue that sinks and collects at the base of a liquid, such as coffee grounds or wine dregs.
27. 27
    verb

    To start a mixed drink by pouring the liquor in first, leaving room for soda.
28. 28
    verbobsolete

    To wind thread or yarn into a ball or onto a spool.

    As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest it should rauel and be good to none, / You must prouide to bottome it on me.

    c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”
29. 29
    verbobsolete

    To rest on something as a foundation, or to have its basis in it.