bottle up
To stop yourself from showing how you feel, and keep all your emotions locked inside yourself.
Meanings
To suppress emotions or feelings, keeping them hidden inside instead of expressing them.
"She had been bottling up her grief for months before she finally broke down."
"Don't bottle up your feelings."
— Widely attributed to mental health advice; commonly used phrase in counselling contexts
To trap or confine a person, force, or group so that they cannot move or escape.
"Allied forces bottled up the enemy troops in the narrow coastal valley."
Widely used in both British and American English. The emotional sense is the most common and carries a slightly negative connotation — it implies that suppressing emotions is unhealthy and will eventually cause problems. The military sense (bottling up enemy forces) is less common but established in historical and strategic writing.
Commonly used with
Forms
Understand "bottle up" better
Real video examples
Video examples are being collected. Check back soon.
Want to master this phrasal verb?
Practice "bottle up" on Looplines