FromCockney rhyming slangbottle and glass, originally meaningarse.lose one's nerve was vulgarlylose one's arse, euphemised tolose one's bottle, clipped tobottle and subsequently given adummy pronoun. Seebottle.
bottleit (third-person singular simple presentbottles it,present participlebottling it,simple past and past participlebottled it)(UK, informal, Cockney rhyming slang)
- Tosuppress an action or expression, especially when due to lack of courage.
- Tolose one's nerve.
- Torun away, especially when due to lack of courage.
- (especially sports) To fail in an embarrassing way in a crucial situation, especially due tonerves.
2022 October 6, James Richardson,The Totally Football Book, Hachette UK,→ISBN:For a while, it was a three-horse race and, if anything, it looked like José Mourinho's Chelsea were the team to beat. Chelseabottled it, Liverpool beat Manchester City and the title was theirs to lose ... which they did in that match against Chelsea.
2024 June 20, Katherine Reilly,Match Point: an enemies to lovers tennis romance perfect for fans of Wimbledon, Bloomsbury Publishing,→ISBN:If you want to win Wimbledon, you have to be controlled mentally, but he's too volatile. He's just not a level-headed guy out there. He's had many chances and he's alwaysbottled it.
