To touch bottom

Bottom Bot"tom (b[o^]t"t[u^]m), n. [OE. botum, botme, AS. botm; akin to OS. bodom, D. bodem, OHG. podam, G. boden, Icel. botn, Sw. botten, Dan. bund (for budn), L. fundus (for fudnus), Gr. pyqmh`n (for fyqmh`n), Skr. budhna (for bhudhna), and Ir. bonn sole of the foot, W. bon stem, base. [root]257. Cf. 4th {Found}, {Fund}, 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. [1913 Webster]

Or dive into the bottom of the deep. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Barrels with the bottom knocked out. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms. --W. Irving. [1913 Webster]

3. That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork. [1913 Webster]

4. The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, sea. [1913 Webster]

5. The fundament; the buttocks. [1913 Webster]

6. An abyss. [Obs.] --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

7. Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley. ``The bottoms and the high grounds.'' --Stoddard. [1913 Webster]

8. (Naut.) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship. [1913 Webster]

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped. --Bancroft. [1913 Webster]

{Full bottom}, a hull of such shape as permits carrying a large amount of merchandise. [1913 Webster]

9. Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom. [1913 Webster]

10. Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment. --Johnson. [1913 Webster]

{At bottom}, {At the bottom}, at the foundation or basis; in reality. ``He was at the bottom a good man.'' --J. F. Cooper.

{To be at the bottom of}, to be the cause or originator of; to be the source of. [Usually in an opprobrious sense.] --J. H. Newman. [1913 Webster]

He was at the bottom of many excellent counsels. --Addison. [1913 Webster]

{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. [1913 Webster]