hit the bottle

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1. a portable container for holding liquids, characteristically having a neck and mouth and made of glass or plastic.
2. the contents of such a container; as much as such a container contains: a bottle of wine.
3. bottled cow’s milk, milk formulas, or substitute mixtures given to infants instead of mother’s milk: raised on the bottle.
4. the bottle, intoxicating beverages; liquor: He became addicted to the bottle.

verb (used with object), bot·tled, bot·tling.

5. to put into or seal in a bottle: to bottle grape juice.
6. British. to preserve (fruit or vegetables) by heating to a sufficient temperature and then sealing in a jar.

Verb Phrases

7. bottle up,
   1. to repress, control, or restrain: He kept all of his anger bottled up inside him.
   2. to enclose or entrap: Traffic was bottled up in the tunnel.

Idioms

8. hit the bottle, Slang. to drink alcohol to excess often or habitually.

noun

1. 1. a vessel, often of glass and typically cylindrical with a narrow neck that can be closed with a cap or cork, for containing liquids
   2. (as modifier)a bottle rack
2. Also called: bottleful the amount such a vessel will hold
3. 1. a container equipped with a teat that holds a baby’s milk or other liquid; nursing bottle
   2. the contents of such a containerthe baby drank his bottle
4. short for magnetic bottle
5. British slang nerve; courage (esp in the phrase lose one’s bottle)
6. British slang money collected by street entertainers or buskers
7. full bottle Australian slang well-informed and enthusiastic about something
8. the bottle informal drinking of alcohol, esp to excess

verb (tr)

9. to put or place (wine, beer, jam, etc) in a bottle or bottles
10. to store (gas) in a portable container under pressure
11. slang to injure by thrusting a broken bottle into (a person)
12. British slang (of a busker) to collect money from the bystanders

noun

1. dialect a bundle, esp of hay

n.

mid-14c., originally of leather, from Old French boteille (12c., Modern French bouteille), from Vulgar Latin butticula, diminutive of Late Latin buttis “a cask,” which is perhaps from Greek. The bottle, figurative for “liquor,” is from 17c.

v.

1640s, from bottle (n.). Related: Bottled; bottling.

Also, hit the booze or sauce. Drink alcoholic beverages, especially a great deal, as in I don’t know if it will be a problem, but he hits the bottle every weekend, or She hardly ever hits the booze, but when she does, watch out, or It doesn’t show in her work, but she hits the sauce every night. These slangy expressions date from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In addition to the idiom beginning with bottle

• bottle up

also see:

• crack a bottle
• hit the bottle

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