to bottom the house
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
renovar
- Before selling, they decided to bottom the house with new paint and fixtures.
Examples
-
Every spring, we bottom the house to keep it looking fresh and tidy.
-
She planned to bottom the house from top to bottom before the party.
-
We need to bottom the house before selling it.
-
Have you ever bottomed the house yourself?
-
Every spring, we bottom the house to keep it looking fresh and tidy.
-
Before selling, they decided to bottom the house with new paint and fixtures.
-
She planned to bottom the house from top to bottom before the party.
Synonyms
31
4.6
To make something clean and like new by fixing or decorating it
21
1.0
To make a house clean and tidy by removing dirt and putting things in order
13
3.8
To make yourself or a place look cleaner and nicer
4
3.0
Make a room look cleaner and nicer with small changes
To make something old look new by fixing or cleaning it
To clean and tidy a house thoroughly and regularly
Antonyms
How Thorough
- Informal
31
4.6
41
3.2
∞
1.0
42
1.0
66
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal sense of 'bottom' given (to provide a seat/bottom) plus 'house' does not compositionally yield the notion of renovating, painting, or thoroughly cleaning a building. There is no common English pattern where 'bottom + house' means refurbish, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would not reliably infer this meaning. The phrase therefore appears idiomatic or dialectal and is unpredictable from its constituents.
Etymology
Bottom the house may come from the idea of fixing a house 'from the bottom up'. Workers would start at the floors and foundation and clean or repair every part, so today it means 'to renovate, paint, or thoroughly clean'.