bottle tops

Meanings

1. 1nounpluralBritish

   The small caps or lids that seal bottles, especially those of metal or plastic.

   Grammar: Plural form of bottle top: the bottle tops were removed.

   Patterns

   • bottle tops from something
   • collect bottle tops

   The children collected bottle tops for a craft project.

   Please take the bottle tops off before you recycle the bottles.

   Bottle tops littered the beach after the festival.

2. 2nounpluralinformal

   Metal or plastic caps that are reused for art, games or as small tokens.

   Grammar: Used for crafts and play: bottle tops were used as game pieces.

   Patterns

   • make something from bottle tops

   The artist made a mosaic from colorful bottle tops.

   We used bottle tops as counters in the board game.

   Old bottle tops can make a pretty garden wind chime.

Word forms

Common combinations

plastic bottle tops

Plastic bottle tops are recycled separately.

metal bottle tops

Metal bottle tops can be sharp.

collect bottle tops

The school collects bottle tops for charity.

unscrew bottle tops

He struggled to unscrew the bottle tops.

recycle bottle tops

Councils differ on whether you can recycle bottle tops.

Synonyms and how they differ

bottle caps

Bottle caps is the American phrase and means exactly the same thing.

lids

Lids are covers for any container, so they are more general than bottle tops.

stoppers

Stoppers are plugs that fit inside a bottle neck, such as a cork, while bottle tops fit over it.

crown corks

Crown corks are the crimped metal caps on beer bottles, a specific kind of bottle top.

Word family

bottle noun

a container with a narrow neck

bottle verb

to put a liquid into bottles

bottled adjective

sold in a bottle

bottle opener noun

a tool for removing caps

Commonly confused: bottle tops or bottle bottoms?

Practice

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