English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • (file)

Verb edit

bottom the house (third-person singular simple present bottoms the house, present participle bottoming the house, simple past and past participle bottomed the house)

  1. (idiomatic, dated) To clean a house from top to bottom; to clean a house extremely thoroughly.
    • 1957, Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy[1], →ISBN:
      The half-length lace curtains keep out most of what little sun there is, but they establish your privacy: the window-ledges and doorsteps scrubbed and yellowed with scouring-stone further establish that you are a 'decent' family, that you believe in 'bottoming' the house each week.
    • 1978, Colin Gordon, A richer dust: echoes from an Edwardian album[2]:
      She had 'bottomed' the house (ie spring-cleaned) and cooked specially for me.
    • 1985, The Raving Beauties, editors, No holds barred[3], →ISBN:
      My mother-in-law pickled walnuts
      and covered floors in rag rugs
      she bottomed the house each spring

Translations edit

See also edit