English Reference
Adjective

bottomless

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US /ˈbɑtəmɫəs/ UK /bˈɒtəmləs/ bot·tom·less

adj.having no bottom or being very deep. You use this to describe something that seems to go on forever or has an endless supply.

adj.having no bottom or being extremely deep; figuratively, having an infinite or seemingly endless supply. Often used to describe abstract concepts like patience or resources.


SIMPLE

The hotel has a bottomless supply of fresh towels.

CONTEXTUAL

The hikers were surprised to find a bottomless pit at the edge of the forest.

COMPLEX

The company's bottomless appetite for expansion eventually led to a financial crisis that the board could not recover from.

None of which is the billpayer’s fault, who should not be treated as a bottomless source of funding for other people’s failures.

The Guardian· 13 Aug 2026

From Middle English botemles, botmeles, equivalent to bottom + -less. Cognate with West Frisian boaiemleas (“bottomless”), Dutch bodemloos (“bottomless”), German Low German boddenloos (“bottomless”), German bodenlos (“bottomless”), Swedish bottenlös (“bottomless”), Icelandic botnlaus (“bottomless”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Origin Middle English botemles
Level B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency Occasional
Updated