bottoming

Pluralbottomings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bottom.

   The recession appeared to be bottoming by late winter.

   Analysts agreed the housing slump was finally bottoming.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In "is bottoming" it is a verb; as a noun the same spelling can take a plural, bottomings, which the verb never does. Its verb uses range widely: furnishing something with a bottom, founding something on or upon a base, or the barroom habit of bottoming a glass with spirits before topping it up with soda water. For the noun, see the act of bottoming.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The action or process of something dropping to its lowest level or base.

   Economists debated whether the bottoming signaled the end of the downturn.

   A clear bottoming of the curve gave the team a measurable low point.

   Similartrough, nadir, low

   Oppositepeaking

   Note

   A noun that follows the verb wherever it goes, so what it names shifts with the field. It is also countable, which lets engineers treat each bottoming as an event to be tallied and timed. The Shock and Vibration Bulletin (1961) speaks of "the mean number of bottomings per second," a rate calculated in theory as well as measured.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A foundation or base layer that supports a structure resting above it.

   Without a proper bottoming, the wall began to sink within a year.

   The engineers reinforced the bottoming to bear the weight of the tower.

   Similarfoundation, base, footing, substructure

   Note

   Here the word names a thing rather than an action: the course a structure sits on. John Ward's The Roman Era in Britain (1911) describes Roman works that "rest upon stone bottomings" and compares them with the Antonine Wall. The word pairs naturally with a material, as in stone bottomings, and with rest on or upon. That concreteness keeps it apart from the act of bottoming.

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