Bot"tom (b&obreve;t"tŭm), 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. √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.
