bottleful

Bottleful is a noun that refers to the amount of liquid contained in or filling a bottle. It can describe a quantity equivalent to the bottle’s capacity or to a portion drawn from it, and is used for beverages such as wine and water as well as medicines and other fluids.

Origin and form: The term is a compound of bottle and the suffix -ful, similar to spoonful and handful. In modern English it is typically written as one word (bottleful), though older writings sometimes show bottle-full. It appears in both British and American usage, with no fixed standard as a precise measurement.

Usage: Bottleful is informal and nontechnical; it is usually used with a, or numerals: a bottleful of wine, two bottlefuls of beer. The actual volume depends on the bottle size, so the expression conveys a rough amount rather than a precise quantity.

In literature, bottleful may be used metaphorically to convey fullness or abundance, as in “a bottleful of memories.” Its figurative use appears in descriptive prose and poetry, where the term emphasizes fullness rather than numeric exactness.

See also: bottle, bottle size, spoonful, mouthful.