bottle it
phrasal verb.phrasal verb. to lose your courage at the last moment and decide not to do something you planned.
phrasal verb. to fail to perform or to withdraw from a commitment due to a sudden loss of nerve or confidence. This is a highly idiomatic phrasal verb common in British English, often used in sporting or high-pressure contexts.
He was going to jump, but he bottled it at the last second.
She had practiced her speech for weeks, but she bottled it when she saw the size of the crowd.
Despite their early lead, the team seemed to bottle it in the final ten minutes, allowing the opposition to score twice.
- chicken out
- lose one's nerve
- panic
- wimp out
- go through with it
- brave it out
- face up to
- Particles
- it
- Separability
- inseparable
- Pattern
- bottle + it
The pronoun 'it' is a fixed part of the phrase and does not refer to a specific object.
Explain that 'it' is dummy syntax here; you cannot 'bottle a race' or 'bottle the jump' in this sense—you simply 'bottle it'.
He bottled to jump.He bottled it and didn't jump.The phrase is typically used alone or followed by a coordinating conjunction, not followed by an infinitive verb.
Last updated July 26, 2026