spin the bottle
- noun
- Informal
- At the party, we decided to play spin the bottle to see who would kiss whom.
- playing spin the bottle
- start playing spin the bottle
I ended up getting with all three girls through Spin the bottle.
- I ended up getting with all three girls through Spin the bottle.
- It was either that or this other time we played a spin the bottle game and there was this girl named Emily.
- But Speaking of that, back to the Avox will spin the bottle night, which was last night.
- I but, yeah, I played spin the bottle with like the girls that we knew growing up where in random places parks.
Examples
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We were in Sue Leonard's basement playing spin the bottle.
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My first kiss was in spin the bottle.
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One night, they were all playing spin the bottle...
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It's time to play Spin the Bottle!
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We're gonna play spin the bottle!
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Wanna play Spin the Bottle?
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JUSTIN: We were playing spin the bottle.
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Derek, uh, taught me how to play spin the bottle.
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Okay, time to play Spin the Bottle with our bearded buddy.
Fiction book (2000) -
The other week, at her thirteenth birthday party, I was supposed to tongue-kiss her for thirty seconds in spin the bottle and got disqualified when I stopped too soon.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
An activity people do with guests to make a social event more fun
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase transparently combines 'spin' and 'bottle', so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it involves spinning a bottle. However, the conventionalized game rule (the bottle points to someone who must kiss the spinner or be kissed) is cultural and not predictable from the constituents alone, so full understanding requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Spin the bottle comes from a simple party action: people sit in a circle and spin a bottle in the middle, and when it stops it points to someone. The rule that the spinner and the chosen person must 'kiss' made the phrase name that 'game'.