Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Bottom

Bottom (bot"tum) , noun

[Old English botum, botme, Anglo-Saxon botm; akin to Old Saxon bodom, Dutch bodem, Old High German podam, German boden, Icelandic botn, Swedish botten, Danish bund (for budn), Latin fundus (for fudnus), Greek pyqmh`n (for fyqmh`n), Sanskrit budhna (for bhudhna), and Ir. bonn sole of the foot, Welsh bon stem, base. r257. Compare 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. — Shakespeare
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. [Obsolete] — 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.
(Nautical) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship.
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted. — Shakespeare
Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped. — Bancroft
Collocations (1)
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
He was at the bottom of many excellent counsels. — Addison

Bottom , adjective

Of or pertaining to the bottom; fundamental; lowest; under; as, bottom rock; the bottom board of a wagon box; bottom prices.
Collocations (3)
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.

Bottom , transitive verb

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

Bottom , intransitive verb

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.

Bottom , noun

[Old English botme, perh. corrupt. for button. See Button.]

A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. [Obsolete]
Silkworms finish their bottoms in... fifteen days. — Mortimer

Bottom , transitive verb

To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread. [Obsolete]
As you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me. — Shakespeare