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At bottom   /æt bˈɑtəm/   Listen
noun
Bottom  n.  
1.
The lowest part of anything; the foot; as, the bottom of a tree or well; the bottom of a hill, a lane, or a page. "Or dive into the bottom of the deep."
2.
The part of anything which is beneath the contents and supports them, as the part of a chair on which a person sits, the circular base or lower head of a cask or tub, or the plank floor of a ship's hold; the under surface. "Barrels with the bottom knocked out." "No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms."
3.
That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.
4.
The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, sea.
5.
The fundament; the buttocks.
6.
An abyss. (Obs.)
7.
Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley. "The bottoms and the high grounds."
8.
(Naut.) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship. "My ventures are not in one bottom trusted." "Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped."
Full bottom, a hull of such shape as permits carrying a large amount of merchandise.
9.
Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom.
10.
Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
At bottom, At the bottom, at the foundation or basis; in reality. "He was at the bottom a good man."
To be at the bottom of, to be the cause or originator of; to be the source of. (Usually in an opprobrious sense.) "He was at the bottom of many excellent counsels."
To go to the bottom, to sink; esp. to be wrecked.
To touch bottom, to reach the lowest point; to find something on which to rest.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"At bottom" Quotes from Famous Books



... apprehended the part they were acting, and the principles by themselves vindicated. It has consisted of two principle acts. The Reformation carried republicanism into religion: our own Revolution into legislation. The two movements were parts of one whole; and, to get at the principles at bottom, either will serve for both, as well as for what may remain for finishing the ...
— The Growth of Thought - As Affecting the Progress of Society • William Withington

... the canal is about eighteen miles. The longer portion of it is an open channel, which is made 350 feet wide at bottom. Its course will be marked by large iron floating buoys; these it is proposed to light with gas by a new self-acting process which has been very successful in other parts of the world; by this means the canal will ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885 • Various

... usher in a new golden age by the diffusion and thoroughness of what is commonly understood by popular education. With all its funds, and improved school-houses, and able teachers, and grammars, and maps, and black-boards, such an education is essentially defective. Without moral principle at bottom to guide and control its energies, education is a sharp sword in the hands of a practiced and reckless fencer. I have no hesitation in saying, that if we could have but one, moral and religious culture is even more important than a knowledge of letters; and ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... then something happened. A great question arose in this country which, though complicated with legal elements, was at bottom a human question and nothing but a question of humanity. That was the slavery question, and is it not significant that it was then, and then for the first time, that women became prominent in politics in America? Not many women—those prominent in that day are so few that you ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper

... she answered. "You have always been that way—and I know that it's because at bottom you are timid and disposed to suffer. And then, too, perhaps you have reasons for not having confidence in a wife's intimate friends—lady-killer ...
— Damaged Goods - A novelization of the play "Les Avaries" • Upton Sinclair


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