I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at the bottom of the pecking order
▪
Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the pecking order .
at the top/bottom of a list
▪
Her name was at the top of the list of students.
at the top/bottom/end etc (of sth)
▪
At the top of the stairs, she paused.
be (at the) top/bottom of the league (= be the best or the worst team in a group )
bottom drawer
bottom gear British English (= the lowest gear )
▪
The car trundled slowly forward in bottom gear.
bottom line
▪
In radio, you have to keep the listener listening. That’s the bottom line.
rock bottom
▪
My personal life had hit rock bottom.
sank to the bottom of
▪
The kids watched as the coin sank to the bottom of the pool.
search sth from top to bottom (= search all the rooms in a building )
▪
They searched the house from top to bottom.
the bottom of a scale
▪
He started at the bottom of the pay scale.
the bottom of a valley
▪
The stream in the bottom of the valley was spanned by a narrow bridge.
the bottom of the garden British English (= the end of the garden, away from the house )
▪
There was a trampoline at the bottom of the garden.
the bottom/foot of a hill
▪
The house was at the bottom of a hill.
the bottom/foot of the page
▪
See the note at the bottom of page 38.
the bottom/foot of the stairs
▪
‘Lisa,’ he cried from the foot of the stairs.
the bottom/lower edge
▪
The lower edge of the window frame was starting to rot.
the bottom/top of a ladder
▪
She sighed with relief when she reached the bottom of the ladder.
the top/bottom button
▪
He was wearing a white shirt with the top button undone.
the top/bottom corner
▪
The ball flew straight into the top corner of the net.
the top/bottom half
▪
He graduated in the top half of his law school class.
the top/bottom/middle drawer
▪
He opened the bottom drawer and got out a T-shirt.
top/bottom etc set
▪
Adam’s in the top set for maths.
top/bottom right-hand corner
▪
the bottom right-hand corner of the page
top/bottom/next etc shelf
▪
Put it back on the top shelf.
upper/lower/top/bottom lip
▪
His bottom lip was swollen.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
river
▪
The river bottom will also provide clues about the current.
▪
My shin had struck a boulder on the river bottom during my spill.
▪
But before they emerge as adults they have a rather longer incarnation as larvae walking about the river bottom .
▪
In the river bottom , where we finally stopped, the grass was above the door handles.
▪
Former railroad rights of way cut across river bottoms that used to be littered with bustling towns.
▪
In the shedding season, the river bottoms would often be ankle-deep in buffalo hair.
sea
▪
The sea bottom is stony, so we strongly recommend you always sail with something on your feet.
▪
Cruising underwater, you see pale outlines of the irregular sea bottom .
▪
Species somewhat resembling that shown are numerous in the Tertiary marine formations, and similar species live today in sandy sea bottoms .
▪
If the photographs are to be believed, the water is azure blue and clear to the sea bottom .
▪
Fisheries are sustained by the plankton which depends upon a constant re-cycling of nutrients stirred up from the sea bottom .
valley
▪
If we stay put they can stay up there and fry the valley bottom , and us with it.
▪
The alternative was to ride along the main highways, which tend to hug the flat land along valley bottoms .
▪
It's large a low level route, sticking to valley bottoms and passes rather to going up on the fells.
▪
Quite apart from the major wetlands, every valley bottom below a certain contour line must have been soggy and at times impassable.
▪
Rock and ice falls scarred the slopes and the valley bottom was a sea of fine sand.
▪
In the Itchen and Avon valleys in Hampshire the farms are apparently regularly spaced along the valley bottoms .
■ VERB
drop
▪
When you dropped the unpeeled grape into the glass, it also dropped to the bottom .
fall
▪
The result is that family income has soared at the top and fallen at the bottom .
▪
Residue fell to the bottom of the sea, and lava later pushed the particles back up.
▪
Snow fell off the bottom of her boots all over the tiled floor, but she didn't care.
▪
Some of the Borax will fall to the bottom of the container. 3.
▪
Then he collapsed and fell to the bottom of the tank.
▪
The extra sugar will fall to the bottom . 49.
▪
Apart from the 4-SUBS, traffic levels meant there was little chance for stock to fall out of the bottom of the cascade.
▪
His eyes fell to the bottom of the page.
get
▪
That co-operation will be vital in getting to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible.
▪
We decided to get to the bottom of this!
▪
He would get to the bottom of all this, just as soon as he could get it all clear in his mind.
▪
They want to get to the bottom of everything they see.
▪
I knew Purvis would get to the bottom of it in time.
▪
When I got to the bottom of the hill and looked up, and I saw that beautiful campus, I cried.
▪
Or had her efforts to get to the bottom of the rue Roland mystery taken an unexpected toll on her?
▪
When he got to the bottom , Jack chopped the beanstalk down, and the giant fell to the ground, dead.
hit
▪
At the time, I thought one had hit rock bottom .
▪
Page has hit proverbial rock bottom and has become a walking skeleton living on the streets.
▪
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer's fortunes took a dramatic twist midway through last season when his career hit rock bottom .
▪
They say you have to hit bottom before things start looking up.
▪
It really worries me what the impact could be in a few years when we hit the bottom of the business cycle.
lie
▪
They lay in the bottom of the bag, too discouraged even to talk.
▪
His girlfriend had been woken by the noise, and had found him lying at the bottom of the stairs.
▪
Knowing that self-interest lay at the bottom of his proposal did not prevent my being grateful.
▪
Holman lay at the bottom of the open grave where he'd been roughly dumped.
▪
This was Goat Island, created of silts and clays that had originally lain on the bottom of the vanished Lake Tonawanda.
▪
Floating Fantail My White Fantail spends most of its time either floating at the surface, or lying on the bottom .
▪
The rest, including your own clothes, now lie at the bottom of some deep, evil-smelling swamp.
reach
▪
Ali Christie was straightening his tie as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
▪
In the Wood-Prediction column, have the students number their predictions about which object will reach the bottom of the slide first.
▪
By the time she reached the bottom he had the saloon deck hatch open and was sitting at the table.
▪
It takes nearly two hours to reach the bottom at a depth of just over 3, 000 meters.
▪
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she began to run towards the door.
▪
The difficultly in reaching the canyon bottom might well ensure it remains pristine.
▪
With air-driven models, especially those that reach the tank bottom , the contact time is greater and little escapes.
▪
When that column reaches the bottom of the page, the cursor will move to the top of the second column.
scrape
▪
Although a primitive recording programme was in progress, the company evidently had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for material.
▪
With a spatula, scrape sides and bottom of bowl before each egg is added.
▪
Add drained sauerkraut and stir well, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan.
sink
▪
It was wrapped in netting and sunk to the bottom .
▪
While it was on top, it lost some of the bubbles and sank to the bottom again.
▪
Clamp it between the two parts of an algae magnet and sink it to the bottom of the tank.
▪
You bring the papers up, but the next day they sink to the bottom again.
▪
During dry periods the water evaporates, and the gypsum sinks to the lake bottom .
▪
He might have sunk to the moss-covered bottom of a clear pond where he was resting like a leaf.
▪
Then he was in the hold, chilly waters around his knees as he sank through the bottom of the boat itself.
▪
There was a time I went down like a stone in a pond and sank clear to the bottom .
start
▪
It goes without saying that you start with the bottom step, to prevent the concrete falling through to the one below.
▪
The movement started from the bottom .
▪
If you're not sure about your standard, do yourself a favour-\#start at the bottom and work upwards.
▪
You wan na go join the human race, right? Start at the bottom ?
▪
Show her how to start buttoning from the bottom up.
▪
Both groups of students were starting their careers at City College, and both were starting at rock bottom .
▪
If you start at the bottom there's nowhere to go down.
▪
Migden turned to old-fashioned means to launch her career: starting from the bottom .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at the top/bottom of the heap
from the (bottom of your) heart
▪
Blood flows out from the heart to the tissues as before, but its return is now forced.
▪
Both versions monitor about a dozen heart parameters, most importantly the flow of blood from the heart.
▪
But speaking from the heart did not seem wise.
▪
In our language-the Ojibwa language-we say the knowledge comes from the heart .
▪
It had not come from the heart of the congregation, but from behind the footlights.
▪
No musical notation, for music must come from the heart and not off a page.
▪
The Hague Appeal will not merely be a cry from the heart .
from top to bottom
▪
And we searched it from top to bottom.
▪
Example 4 is a great lick for covering the whole fretboard from top to bottom.
▪
He was immense, though still lodged from top to bottom within me.
▪
Keep turning the carrot slightly and repeat the motion from top to bottom until you have removed all the peel.
▪
Kirov took only a few more minutes to search the small studio from top to bottom.
▪
Sassenach was created, the great buttress climbed, as it should be, direct from top to bottom.
▪
The lineup appears to be strong from top to bottom, but all the players know Bagwell is the key component.
▪
They can just be people who believe they ought to reshape society from top to bottom.
hit/reach rock bottom
▪
After we lost the contract, morale in the office reached rock bottom.
▪
Confidence in the city's police force has hit rock bottom.
▪
Joan Rivers reveals how she hit rock bottom and recovered in her autobiography.
▪
As a result, hotel values hit rock bottom in 1992&.
▪
At the time, I thought one had hit rock bottom.
▪
But this time he does seem to have hit rock bottom.
▪
Ogmore to Barry beach sport hit rock bottom.
▪
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer's fortunes took a dramatic twist midway through last season when his career hit rock bottom.
knock the bottom out of sth
▪
A recession would knock the bottom out of corporate profits.
scrape (the bottom of) the barrel
▪
At that time I thought we were scraping the barrel.
▪
Has Hollywood scraped the barrel for bimbos?
▪
Unions were bargaining for dental insurance, as if scraping the barrel to come up with new benefits.
the bottom line
▪
Most people want to work in a place where they feel valued. That's the bottom line.
▪
Still, the bottom line is that Wisconsin won the game.
▪
The bottom line is, he's gone and he's not coming back.
▪
The bottom line is, men don't change very much after marriage.
the bottom of the pile
▪
At the bottom of the pile , in reverse order of its importance, was the letter from the bishop.
▪
He toyed with the envelope for a couple of seconds, then thrust it back to the bottom of the pile .
▪
He was thrilled to find the cream-colored envelope near the bottom of the pile of greeting cards.
▪
If you are wrong, return the card to the bottom of the pile .
▪
Music for wasted afternoons that's nowhere near the bottom of the pile this week.
▪
The new black immigrants at the bottom of the pile were hardly mentioned.
the top and bottom of it
touch bottom
▪
The lake was too deep for their long poles to touch bottom.
▪
Convictions have hardened, for better for worse, and the floaters have touched bottom.
you (can) bet your life/your bottom dollar
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Did you fall on your bottom ?
▪
pajama bottoms
▪
the ocean bottom
▪
They've got baggy pants with ripped bottoms.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
He pokes it through the bottom of the popcorn box they share.
▪
However, these warnings frequently appear at the bottom of advertisements in the tiniest of print.
▪
The transponder was released acoustically just after Alvin left the bottom for the last time in this area.
▪
This means that a few get top marks, a big bunch get middling marks, and a few come near the bottom .
▪
Western spadefoot toads burrow into the wash bottom , emerging to produce another batch of mosquito larvae-eating tadpoles during the summer rains.
II. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
class
▪
She therefore loathes the bottom class and everyone in it.
▪
I stayed in the bottom class , but noticed the girl that I had been talking to was in another class.
▪
I was put in the bottom class .
club
▪
Clough, manager of bottom club Nottingham Forest, is under pressure.
▪
Easington desperately need three points from their last home game of the season against bottom club Whickham.
▪
After the promise of recent weeks, Tottenham meekly succumbed to the Premier League's bottom club .
▪
Also, the future of Gwynedd's bottom club Bangor Normal College needs to be resolved.
▪
For Leicester, the bottom club , teenager Kitson is likely to retain his place in attack.
corner
▪
Harte fired the ball into the bottom corner before heading for the corner flag to celebrate.
▪
Fold the phyllo, in flag fashion, from the left bottom corner up and over the filling to enclose the spinach.
▪
Are the bottom corners bruised and in need of building up?
▪
Maybe with a dollar sign embossed near the bottom corner .
▪
Hidden on the bottom corner stands an old black and white pub, backing on to the river.
▪
Wrap the bottom corner with a couple of layers of masking tape to prevent the scraper from cutting the device.
drawer
▪
The other women hadn't pulled something out of a bottom drawer to come to the classes.
▪
The bottom drawer was pulled out and empty.
▪
Black's hand found the bottom drawer , and the bottle.
▪
I sat in my bedroom and slipped the scrapbook out of the bottom drawer .
▪
The bottom drawer of her desk proved to be locked, with no sign of a key.
▪
Johnnie found the tacks in the bottom drawer and, whirling on her heels, marched out of the kitchen.
▪
The baby slept in the bottom drawer of the dresser: the kitten had a feather cushion.
▪
Chris attempts to clear his desk by jamming all outstanding items in the biggest, bottom drawer .
edge
▪
Add a border or binding down the leading and bottom edges of curtains for a real interior designer touch.
▪
He brought down the bottom edge of the can right on the crown of the head.
▪
The bottom edge of the curtain was a matter of free links, not a connecting bar.
▪
There was a thin line of light at the bottom edge .
▪
Trim neatly around bottom edge and leave to dry overnight.
▪
Cut a long strip of fondant to wrap around the bottom edge of the ship.
▪
Machine along the bottom edge of the tape, trapping the lining, and across the ends to neaten them off.
▪
Attacks to the abdomen must be no lower than the bottom edge of the belt.
end
▪
At the bottom end he could go no further, and so retraced his steps.
▪
Upon arriving home, he noticed the sapling still had a pretty good root system on the bottom end .
▪
The left and bottom ends of the axis similarly represent the negative poles and the lowest scores.
▪
A good look at the bottom end of a drummer tended to lower crowd sympathy.
▪
At the bottom end of the playing fields is a rocky outcrop.
▪
The only true amateurs left are the ones on the bottom end of the highlights-film, commercial-endorsement food chain.
▪
Crane for plenty of small fish from the bottom end , and some good nets of roach from the Ashtip Field.
▪
He set off towards the bottom end of the square to walk down Via Roma in the direction of the sea.
half
▪
The bottom half of the building was towers, balconies and metal grilles, and the top half was very Hemish merchant.
▪
Place each burger on the bottom half of focaccia.
▪
The bottom half hangs down, allowing me to transfer the envelope to inside my coat.
▪
But now, in the bottom half , our animal brotherhood is forgotten.
▪
He pushed the bottom half of the window upwards and swung one leg over the sill.
▪
The bottom half will say 1951-2001.
▪
Spread the bottom half with the cooled apple filling and cover with the top half of the cake.
▪
But this cramped his writing hand and made writing on the bottom half of the page impossible.
layer
▪
The middle layer contains 24 nodes, each connected to all four outputs from the bottom layer.
▪
In each node of the bottom layer , the inputs are treated as the address of a cell.
▪
Shallow lakes sometimes have a bottom layer of aquatic mosses, which by photosynthesis add oxygen to the water close by.
▪
But a third crate, on its bottom layer , had the latest equipment for long-range detonation of explosives.
▪
She took off everything that could identify her, and stowed it in the bottom layer of her jewellery box.
▪
The bottom layer of the model represents the implicit information in the enterprise.
▪
The addition of finely-sifted compost or leaf-mould to the bottom layer with gravel or unwashed coarse sand is ideal.
level
▪
The bottom level , the operational level, involves aspects such as maintaining road position and the use of the car controls.
▪
This put M2 below the bottom level of the Fed's targeted band.
line
▪
Gender should never be used as a bottom line explanation because it is a social construction needing explanation itself.
▪
That, in any case, is the bottom line of a great many studies into the matter.
▪
This is fastened to a top and bottom line which is 100 yards long.
▪
The bottom line is in the ledger book, pure and simple.
▪
When the net is set the top and bottom lines are tight, but the net itself remains slack.
▪
And finally, the bottom line , is the budget approved without long delay and nit-picking?
▪
The bottom line is even bleaker.
▪
The bottom line is, there is no stake in anyone legitimizing campaign financing.
lip
▪
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip , biting back a cry, and she winced.
▪
The bottom lip fattens and pushes out beyond the lower lip.
▪
His teeth closed lightly on her bottom lip .
▪
Her bottom lip is fat and purple and there's a split down the middle.
▪
Kate chewed on her bottom lip .
▪
She drew in her breath sharply and bit down hard on her bottom lip in an effort not to cry out.
▪
The bottom lip protrudes in sullen, worried anticipation.
▪
She looked up at him expectantly, her mouth open, the bottom lip raised, almost brutal in what it implied.
part
▪
The stone walls of the bottom part of the wall section are clearly visible but most of the structure is ivy-clad.
price
▪
So during a recession, glamorous designer names ... offered at rock bottom prices can be alluring.
▪
They're at rock bottom prices , and the only way is up.
rung
▪
Once Romanov had reached the bottom rung of the fire escape, he ran to a passing tram.
▪
It became imperative that he take hold of the bottom rung of the sinuous ladder, which he did.
shelf
▪
The small packets were on the bottom shelf , medium on the middle shelf and large packets on the top.
▪
She pointed to a pile of books on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.
▪
All the garages on the bottom shelf are full, but one of the garages on the top shelf is empty.
▪
I took the package from the bottom shelf of the cupboard and scurried back down the hall.
▪
The bottom shelf was wider and it held a square white machine which looked like a document shredder.
▪
They were all on the bottom shelves .
stair
▪
I glimpsed Auntie sitting on the bottom stair as I flew past above her head.
▪
Liz stepped over the bottom stair , which always creaked.
▪
She stepped off the bottom stair on to a carpeted floor.
▪
I forgot I'd got them on and I slipped on the bottom stairs .
step
▪
Baptiste was standing on the bottom step of the wooden staircase, affecting surprise at the sight of her.
▪
Denver sat down on the bottom step .
▪
The bottom step submerged means there is good water downstream.
▪
There she was, sitting on the bottom step .
▪
Léonie stood on the bottom step and clutched the metal handrail.
▪
As he reached the bottom step , it occurred to him that Hicks was probably a psychopath after all.
▪
Reaching the bottom step , he turned the beam into the corner, reflecting the sheen of deep mahogany wall panels.
▪
He felt very dizzy, and sat down on the bottom step of the stairs.
third
▪
The gauges and sonar screen are spread across the bottom third of the computer monitor.
▪
For a team that ranks in the bottom third in caring for the ball, this was a triumph of epic proportions.
▪
It has become unfashionable to care about those at the bottom third of the economic ladder.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
She looked in the bottom drawer of the chest.
▪
The bottom layer of the cake is made of chocolate and strawberries.
▪
the bottom right-hand corner of the page
▪
The book is on the bottom shelf.
▪
Tim is in the bottom 10% of his class.
▪
You have some peanut butter on your bottom lip.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Anything which does not contribute to the bottom line of national competitiveness-especially unpredictable commitments outside borders-should be avoided.
▪
Different viewpoints Ultimately, for promoters, agents, venues and artists, the bottom line is the bottom line.
▪
The bottom line is that there is a serious problem.
▪
The bottom line on fat minimums is not yet clear.
▪
The lock snapped and the detective levered up the bottom section.
▪
Upon arriving home, he noticed the sapling still had a pretty good root system on the bottom end.
III. verb
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at the top/bottom of the heap
from the (bottom of your) heart
▪
Blood flows out from the heart to the tissues as before, but its return is now forced.
▪
Both versions monitor about a dozen heart parameters, most importantly the flow of blood from the heart.
▪
But speaking from the heart did not seem wise.
▪
In our language-the Ojibwa language-we say the knowledge comes from the heart .
▪
It had not come from the heart of the congregation, but from behind the footlights.
▪
No musical notation, for music must come from the heart and not off a page.
▪
The Hague Appeal will not merely be a cry from the heart .
from top to bottom
▪
And we searched it from top to bottom.
▪
Example 4 is a great lick for covering the whole fretboard from top to bottom.
▪
He was immense, though still lodged from top to bottom within me.
▪
Keep turning the carrot slightly and repeat the motion from top to bottom until you have removed all the peel.
▪
Kirov took only a few more minutes to search the small studio from top to bottom.
▪
Sassenach was created, the great buttress climbed, as it should be, direct from top to bottom.
▪
The lineup appears to be strong from top to bottom, but all the players know Bagwell is the key component.
▪
They can just be people who believe they ought to reshape society from top to bottom.
hit/reach rock bottom
▪
After we lost the contract, morale in the office reached rock bottom.
▪
Confidence in the city's police force has hit rock bottom.
▪
Joan Rivers reveals how she hit rock bottom and recovered in her autobiography.
▪
As a result, hotel values hit rock bottom in 1992&.
▪
At the time, I thought one had hit rock bottom.
▪
But this time he does seem to have hit rock bottom.
▪
Ogmore to Barry beach sport hit rock bottom.
▪
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer's fortunes took a dramatic twist midway through last season when his career hit rock bottom.
the bottom line
▪
Most people want to work in a place where they feel valued. That's the bottom line.
▪
Still, the bottom line is that Wisconsin won the game.
▪
The bottom line is, he's gone and he's not coming back.
▪
The bottom line is, men don't change very much after marriage.
the bottom of the pile
▪
At the bottom of the pile , in reverse order of its importance, was the letter from the bishop.
▪
He toyed with the envelope for a couple of seconds, then thrust it back to the bottom of the pile .
▪
He was thrilled to find the cream-colored envelope near the bottom of the pile of greeting cards.
▪
If you are wrong, return the card to the bottom of the pile .
▪
Music for wasted afternoons that's nowhere near the bottom of the pile this week.
▪
The new black immigrants at the bottom of the pile were hardly mentioned.
the top and bottom of it
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
She believed that the motivation to lose weight could only come from people bottoming out emotionally.