Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Bottom?

\Bot"tom\ (b[o^]t"t[u^]m), n. [OE. botum, botme, AS. botm; akin to OS. bodom, D. bodem, OHG. podam, G. boden, Icel. botn, Sw. botten, Dan. bund (for budn), L. fundus (for fudnus), Gr. pyqmh`n (for fyqmh`n), Skr. budhna (for bhudhna), and Ir. bonn sole of the foot, W. bon stem, base. [root]257. Cf. 4th {Found}, {Fund}, n.] 1. The lowest part of anything; the foot; as, the bottom of a tree or well; the bottom of a hill, a lane, or a page. Or dive into the bottom of the deep. --Shak. 2. The part of anything which is beneath the contents and supports them, as the part of a chair on which a person sits, the circular base or lower head of a cask or tub, or the plank floor of a ship's hold; the under surface. Barrels with the bottom knocked out. --Macaulay. No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms. --W. Irving. 3. That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork. 4. The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, sea. 5. The fundament; the buttocks. 6. An abyss. [Obs.] --Dryden. 7. Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley. ``The bottoms and the high grounds.'' --Stoddard. 8. (Naut.) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship. My ventures are not in one bottom trusted. --Shak. Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped. --Bancroft. {Full bottom}, a hull of such shape as permits carrying a large amount of merchandise. 9. Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom. 10. Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment. --Johnson. {At bottom}, {At the bottom}, at the foundation or basis; in reality. ``He was at the bottom a good man.'' --J. F. Cooper. {To be at the bottom of}, to be the cause or originator of; to be the source of. [Usually in an opprobrious sense.] --J. H. Newman. He was at the bottom of many excellent counsels. --Addison. {To go to the bottom}, to sink; esp. to be wrecked. {To touch bottom}, to reach the lowest point; to find something on which to rest.
\Bot"tom\, a. Of or pertaining to the bottom; fundamental; lowest; under; as, bottom rock; the bottom board of a wagon box; bottom prices. {Bottom glade}, a low glade or open place; a valley; a dale. --Milton. {Bottom grass}, grass growing on bottom lands. {Bottom land}. See 1st {Bottom}, n., 7.
\Bot"tom\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bottomed} (?); p. pr. & vb. n. {Bottoming}.] 1. To found or build upon; to fix upon as a support; -- followed by on or upon. Action is supposed to be bottomed upon principle. --Atterbury. Those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state]. --South. 2. To furnish with a bottom; as, to bottom a chair. 3. To reach or get to the bottom of. --Smiles.
\Bot"tom\, v. i. 1. To rest, as upon an ultimate support; to be based or grounded; -- usually with on or upon. Find on what foundation any proposition bottoms. --Locke. 2. To reach or impinge against the bottom, so as to impede free action, as when the point of a cog strikes the bottom of a space between two other cogs, or a piston the end of a cylinder.
\Bot"tom\, n. [OE. botme, perh. corrupt. for button. See {Button}.] A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. [Obs.] Silkworms finish their bottoms in . . . fifteen days. --Mortimer.
\Bot"tom\, v. t. To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread. [Obs.] As you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me. --Shak.