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

In two of the last three games, CU has bottled up one of the nation’s top rushing attacks (UCF, 177 yards) and harassed one of its most productive passers (Arizona’s Noah Fifita) to the tune of seven sacks, CU’s most since posting eight against Iowa State in 2010. —Matt Schubert, The Denver Post, 19 Oct. 2024

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