What it means
Bottle means nerve, guts, the bit of backbone that stops you wobbling when something feels scary or high-stakes. If you've got bottle, you go through with it. If you bottle it, you lose your nerve at the crucial moment and back out. It's classic British slang, and you'll hear both the noun and the verb all the time.
Usage examples
"He swore he’d ask for a pay rise, walked into the boss’s office, then bottled it and started chatting about the weather instead."
"It took real bottle to get up and sing in front of that crowd."
"You had the bottle to chat to her all night, then bottled asking for her number right at the door."
"Fair play to him, that took proper bottle after getting booed last time."
"I was gonna jump in first, but when everyone started watching, I totally bottled it."
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Where it comes from
It’s old British slang, usually traced to Cockney rhyming slang where bottle and glass linked to arse. From that came lose your bottle, meaning your nerve gives out when it counts. With time, bottle stuck on its own as a rough everyday way to mean courage or nerve.
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