0
Meantolearn Posted 21 years ago
Vocabulary

talk over, bottle up

"Talk over problems, don't bottle them up inside."

I think I understand what the quotes mean, but I'm particularly interested in knowing the following.

1. What does 'over' mean here?

2. What does 'up' mean here?

Thanks,
  

Top answer

To "talk something over" means to talk about something at length, talk about all aspects of it. To "bottle something up" means to close it up tightly in a bottle (or, metaphorically, inside yourself) so that it can't get out. We might say that someone has "bottled up their feelings" and it would be better to "let them out" by talking about them.

  • To "talk something over" means to talk about something at length, talk about all aspects of it.
  • To "bottle something up" means to close it up tightly in a bottle (or, metaphorically, inside yourself) so that it can't get out.
  • We might say that someone has "bottled up their feelings" and it would be better to "let them out" by talking about them.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

3 Answers
0
To "talk something over" means to talk about something at length, talk about all aspects of it.

To "bottle something up" means to close it up tightly in a bottle (or, metaphorically, inside yourself) so that it can't get out. We might say that someone has "bottled up their feelings" and it would be better to "let them out" by talking about them.
0
Hi,

"Talk over problems, don't bottle them up inside."

I think I understand what the quotes mean, but I'm particularly interested in knowing the following.

1. What does 'over' mean here? Sometimes, particularly in spoken English, we add a preposition to a verb to add emphasis and perha
0
Adverbial particles like "over" and "up" usually lose most of their prepositional meanings when they form the completing particle of a phrasal verb, so it's not a question of 'What do "over" and "up" mean in these sentences?'
It's a question of 'What do "talk over" and "bottle up" mean?'.

Now it turns out that sometimes a tiny bit of the original meaning of the particles seep

Related Questions