1346, originally of leather, from O.Fr. boteille, from L.L. butticula dim. of L. buttis "a cask." The verb is first recorded 1641. Bottleneck in the fig. sense of "something obstructing even flow" (of traffic, production, etc.) is from 1896.
a glass or plastic vessel used for storing drinks or other liquids; typically cylindrical without handles and with a narrow neck that can be plugged or capped
2.
the quantity contained in a bottle
3.
a vessel fitted with a flexible teat and filled with milk or formula; used as a substitute for breast feeding infants and very young children
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This Main Entry: bot·tle Pronunciation: 'bät-&l Function: noun often attributive1: a rigid or semirigid containertypically of glass or plastic having a comparatively narrow neck or mouth and usually no handle —see WASH BOTTLE 2: liquid food usually consisting of milk and supplements that is fed from a bottle (as to an infant) in place of mother's milk
Bot"tle\, n. [OE. bote, botelle, OF. botel, bouteille, F. bouteille, fr. LL. buticula, dim. of butis, buttis, butta, flask. Cf. Butt a cask.]1. A hollow vessel, usually of glass or earthenware (but formerly of leather), with a narrow neck or mouth, for holding liquids. 2. The contents of a bottle; as much as a bottle contains; as, to drink a bottle of wine. 3. Fig.: Intoxicating liquor; as, to drown one's reason in the bottle. Note: Bottle is much used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound. Bottle ale, bottled ale. [Obs.] --Shak. Bottle brush, a cylindrical brush for cleansing the interior of bottles. Bottle fish (Zo["o]l.), a kind of deep-sea eel (Saccopharynx ampullaceus), remarkable for its baglike gullet, which enables it to swallow fishes two or three times its won size. Bottle flower. (Bot.) Same as Bluebottle. Bottle glass, a coarse, green glass, used in the manufacture of bottles. --Ure. Bottle gourd (Bot.), the common gourd or calabash (Lagenaria Vulgaris), whose shell is used for bottles, dippers, etc. Bottle grass (Bot.), a nutritious fodder grass (Setaria glauca and S. viridis); -- called also foxtail, and green foxtail. Bottle tit (Zo["o]l.), the European long-tailed titmouse; -- so called from the shape of its nest. Bottle tree (Bot.), an Australian tree (Sterculia rupestris), with a bottle-shaped, or greatly swollen, trunk. Feeding bottle, Nursing bottle, a bottle with a rubber nipple (generally with an intervening tube), used in feeding infants.
Bot"tle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bottledp. pr. & vb. n. Bottling.] To put into bottles; to inclose in, or as in, a bottle or bottles; to keep or restrain as in a bottle; as, to bottle wine or porter; to bottle up one's wrath.
Bot"tle\, n. [OE. botel, OF. botel, dim. of F. botte; cf. OHG. bozo bunch. See Boss stud.] A bundle, esp. of hay. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] --Chaucer. --Shak.
a vessel made of skins for holding wine (Josh. 9:4. 13; 1 Sam. 16:20; Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37, 38), or milk (Judg. 4:19), or water (Gen. 21:14, 15, 19), or strong drink (Hab. 2:15). Earthenware vessels were also similarly used (Jer. 19:1-10; 1 Kings 14:3; Isa. 30:14). In Job 32:19 (comp. Matt. 9:17; Luke 5:37, 38; Mark 2:22) the reference is to a wine-skin ready to burst through the fermentation of the wine. "Bottles of wine" in the Authorized Version of Hos. 7:5 is properly rendered in the Revised Version by "the heat of wine," i.e., the fever of wine, its intoxicating strength. The clouds are figuratively called the "bottles of heaven" (Job 38:37). A bottle blackened or shrivelled by smoke is referred to in Ps. 119:83 as an image to which the psalmist likens himself.
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