BOT'TOM, n.

1. The lowest part of any thing; as, the bottom of a well, vat or ship; the bottom of a hill.
2. The ground under any body of water; as, the bottom of the sea, of a river or lake.
3. The foundation or ground work of any thing, as of an edifice, or of any system or moral subject; the base, or that which supports any superstructure.
4. A low ground; a dale; a valley; applied in the United States to the flat lands adjoining rivers, &c. It is so used in some parts of England. – Mitford.
5. The deepest part; that which is most remote from the view; as, let us examine this subject to the bottom.
6. Bound; limit. There is no bottom in my voluptuousness. – Shak.
7. The utmost extent or depth of cavity, or of intellect, whether deep or shallow. I do see the bottom of justice Shallow. – Shak.
8. The foundation, considered as the cause, spring or origin; the first moving cause; as, a foreign prince is at the bottom of the confederacy.
9. A ship or vessel. Goods imported in foreign bottoms pay a higher duty than those imported in our own. Hence, a, state of hazard, chance or risk; but in this sense it is used chiefly or solely in the singular. We say, venture not too much in one bottom; that is, do not hazard too much at a single risk.
10. A ball of thread. [W. botwm, a button; Corn. id. See Bottle.]
11. The bottom of a lane or alley, is the lowest end. This phrase supposes a declivity; but it is often used for the most remote part, when there is very little declivity.
12. The bottom of beer, or other liquor, is the grounds or dregs.
13. In the language of jockeys, stamina, native strength; as, a horse of good bottom.

To rest upon, as its ultimate support. Find on what foundation a proposition bottoms. – Locke.

1. To found or build upon; to fix upon as a support; followed by on; as, sound reasoning is bottomed on just premises.
2. To furnish with a seat or bottom; as, to bottom a chair.
3. To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread. – Shak.

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. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Silkworms finish their bottoms in . . . fifteen days.
   Mortimer.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. To furnish with a bottom; as, to bottom a chair.
9. 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.
10. That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.
11. To reach or get to the bottom of.
    
    
    Smiles.
12. The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, sea.
13. The fundament; the buttocks.
14. An abyss.
    
    
    [Obs.] Dryden.
15. Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley.
    
    
    "The bottoms and the high grounds." Stoddard.
16. 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.

17. Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom.
18. 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.