Definition of "bottom"

barrels with the bottoms knocked out

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

a great ship's kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 19, in Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883

At the bottom of the staircase I stood and stared at the worn steps, and Ayesha, turning, saw me.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms.

1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […]

This was why Dee had always ridden a buckskin; a man following his kind of trails needed a horse with bottom, and a line-back like this one never wore out.

2017, Les Savage, The Teton Bunch: A Western Trio

Thereupon Billali did a curious thing. Down he went, that venerable-looking old gentleman - for Billali is a gentleman at the bottom - down on to his hands and knees, and in this undignified position, with his long white beard trailing on the ground, he began to creep into the apartment beyond.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

The horses staled in a small brook that runs in a bottom, betwixt two hills.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […]

the bottoms and the high grounds

1812, Amos Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana

Calvin, if you shoot that paper clip at me, I'll get your bottom hauled to the principal's office so fast you'll think you were in a time warp!!

1986 April 10, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)

In Ireland, where 14.5% of the population are jobless, emigration has climbed steadily since 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the bottom fell out of the Irish housing market. In the 12 months to April this year, 40,200 Irish passport-holders left, up from 27,700 the previous year, according to the central statistics office. Irish nationals were by far the largest constituent group among emigrants, at almost 53%.

2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian‎

In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode The Shepherd of the Seas, a Prophet and a God

1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...]

1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped.

November 8, 1773, [first name not given] Bancroft, in Boston Post-Boy

the [silk]worms will fasten themselves, and make their bottoms, which in about fourteen days are finished.

1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708

Edward Hoby of Bisham in Berkshire, Esq; Or, a Fess, Sable, between three Hobby-Hawks, proper; otherwise, Azure, three Bottoms in Fess, Gules.

1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 207

BOTTOM, a trundle or quill of gold thread. See TRUNDLE. Argent three bottoms, in fess gules, the thread or; name, Hoby, of Badland.

1866, Hugh Clark, An Introduction to Heraldry ... Eighteenth edition. Revised and corrected by J. R. Planché, page 99

[...] three “bottoms or clewes” (elsewhere called “spindles” or “fusils upon slippers”) in fesse gules threaded or, for Badlond;

1873, Henry Sydney Grazebrook, The Heraldry of Worcestershire, page 285

We shall bid that thoughtful waiter place beside him, near and handy, / Large supplies of soda water, tumblers bottomed well with brandy, […]

Dirge of the Drinker, in 1866, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art (page 645)

As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest it should rauel and be good to none, / You must prouide to bottome it on me.

c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

But an absurd opinion concerning the king's hereditary right to the crown does not prejudice one that is rational, and bottomed upon solid principles of law and policy.

1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […]

those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727

Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the President must obey outstanding executive orders, even when bottomed on the Constitution, until they are revoked.

2001, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Executive Orders and Presidential Directives, p.59

My first night in America was spent in a motel with plywood over its windows, its pool bottomed with garbage sacks.

1989, B Mukherjee, Jasmine

Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms.

'c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman

Squeaker's dog sniffed and barked joyfully around them till his licking efforts to bottom a salmon tin sent him careering in a muzzled frenzy, that caused the younger woman's thick lips to part grinningly till he came too close.

1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 21

The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on September 24, 2001. The CRB Index bottomed on October 24.

2004, John J. Murphy, Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Market Relationships, page 119