bottle up

phrasal verb

bottled up; bottling up; bottles up

: to keep (a feeling or emotion) inside instead of expressing it : to hide (a feeling or emotion)

She's kept her feelings about the accident bottled up for too long.

I know he's angry, but he bottles it up inside instead of talking to someone about it.

Examples of bottle up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rich, warm, sophisticated – Brown Sugar Babe bottled up some of my favorite scents (and a few of their own unique sellers), and put them in fragrance form, offering me the ability to layer my favorite scents for longer-lasting sillage, and for a more affordable price point. —Kimberly Wilson, Essence, 9 Oct. 2024

Investment long bottled up in idle real estate could flow to more productive pursuits. —Patrick Chovanec, Foreign Affairs, 18 Dec. 2011

While the males in the family tend to bottle up their unspoken grief, Amber wears her art on her sleeve, with drawings of monsters exacting gruesome revenge against an annoying classmate. —Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Sep. 2024

There is no right or wrong way to do this, but the important thing is not to bottle up your feelings. —Lindsay Curtis, Health, 10 Aug. 2024