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Glite Dictionary
to lose one's bottle

to lose one's bottle

9.9
To become suddenly too afraid to do something you planned
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : perder la valentía
  • Just before my turn on stage, I completely lost my bottle and couldn't go on.

Examples

  • She planned to speak up at the meeting but lost her bottle at the last minute.

  • He wanted to ask her out but lost his bottle and walked away.

  • Don't lose your bottle now!

  • He lost his bottle during the final match.

  • Just before my turn on stage, I completely lost my bottle and couldn't go on.

  • She planned to speak up at the meeting but lost her bottle at the last minute.

  • He wanted to ask her out but lost his bottle and walked away.

Antonyms

brave
906 1.0

Has courage when facing danger, pain or fear

How Brave

to hesitate
318 2.5
to lose one's bottle
  • UK
9.9
to freeze
244 1.6
to panic
272 2.3

Surface Forms

lose one's bottle infinitive
losing one's bottle present participle
loses one's bottle third person singular
lost one's bottle past
lost one's bottle past participle

Morphology

lose + one + bottle

The phrase uses 'bottle' in a British slang sense meaning 'courage' rather than the literal container, so the idiomatic sense 'lose courage' cannot be predicted from the literal meanings of 'lose' + 'one's' + 'bottle'. This slang/metaphorical shift is language- and dialect-specific, so an average B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Lose one's bottle: One popular story says the phrase comes from the image of courage kept in a bottle; if you lose that bottle your courage is gone. That's why it means 'to lose courage or confidence'.