bottle up

phrasal verb

bottled up; bottling up; bottles up

: to keep (a feeling or emotion) inside instead of expressing it : to hide (a feeling or emotion)

She's kept her feelings about the accident bottled up for too long.

I know he's angry, but he bottles it up inside instead of talking to someone about it.

Examples of bottle up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

From innovating classics to building community, and finding self-care in between, beauty is more than just a brand, but a ritual (like going to the hair salon) bottled up into a tube. —Essence, 9 May 2025

The students design their own logos and bottle up their dressings made with produce from the farm and additional items donated by Jimbo’s. —Karen Billing, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Mar. 2025

The defection of a single GOP senator on the Intelligence panel, on which Republicans have a one-seat majority, would be enough to bottle up Gabbard’s nomination in committee. —Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 31 Jan. 2025

The goal was to bottle up the latter stages of Game 4 and finally have a better start. —Daniel Nugent-Bowman, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025

Rhymes for bottle up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup