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

The stir-craziness of isolation, collector appetite bottled up to bursting, and a global customer base newly comfortable with spending serious cash over the internet meant that the entire wine world was watching—and desperate to bid. —Josh Condon, Robb Report, 8 Dec. 2024

After years of largely being bottled up in a northwest corner of the country, the insurgents began their advances a week ago with the capture of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest. —Bassem Mroue, Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2024

Kayce had nothing to worry about, Grant swore; everything was bottled up. —Charlie Mason, TVLine, 1 Dec. 2024

Be transparent with each other now so that there’s less weird energy bottled up between you later. —Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Nov. 2024