Noun

(en noun)

(astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is furthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.

(astronomy, more generally) The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is farthest from the planet: the apoapsis of any satellite.

* 1995 , John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-41008-3, page 335:

Conjunctions of I and II [Io and Europa] occur when they are near perigee and apogee respectively; conjunctions of II and III [Europa and Ganymede] occur when II [Europa] is near perigee.

* 2002 , Serge Brunier, Solar System Voyage , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-80724-1, page 36:

The resolution of the images obtained by this American probe [Messenger] will depend on its altitude [above Mercury] at any one time: about ten meters at perigee (200km altitude), but only one 1 km at apogee (15000km).

* 2010 , Ruth Walker and Mary M. Shaffrey et al., Exploring Space: The High Frontier , Jones & Bartlett Learning, ISBN 978-0-7637-8961-9, page 129:

[Nereid’s] apogee —farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.

(possibly, archaic, outside, astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is furthest from the Earth.

(figuratively) The highest point.

* 2004 March 22, :

The cult of the chief executive reached its apogee in the nineteen-nineties, a period when C.E.O.s seemed not so much to serve their companies as to embody them.

* '>citation

Noun

The lowest part from the uppermost part, in either of these senses:

# (rfc-sense) The part furthest in the direction toward which an unsupported object would fall.

#* Macaulay

barrels with the bottom knocked out

#* Washington Irving

No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms.

# (rfc-sense) The part seen, or intended to be seen, nearest the edge of the visual field normally occupied by the lowest visible objects, as "footers appear at the bottoms of pages".

(uncountable, British, slang) Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.

lack bottom

(British, US) a valley, often used in place names.

Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom ?

* Stoddard

the bottoms and the high grounds

(euphemistic) The buttocks or anus.

(nautical) a cargo vessel, a ship.

* 1881 , :

We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...]

(nautical) certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.

* Shakespeare

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.

* Bancroft

Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped.

(baseball) The second half of an inning, the home team's turn to bat.

(BDSM) A submissive in sadomasochistic sexual activity.

(LGBT, slang) A man penetrated or with a preference for being penetrated during homosexual intercourse.

(physics) A bottom quark.

(often, figuratively) The lowest part of a container.

* {{quote-news, year=2011

, date=December 21 , author=Helen Pidd , title=Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=In Ireland, where 14.5% of the population are jobless, emigration has climbed steadily since 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the bottom fell out of the Irish housing market. In the 12 months to April this year, 40,200 Irish passport-holders left, up from 27,700 the previous year, according to the central statistics office. Irish nationals were by far the largest constituent group among emigrants, at almost 53%.}}

A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.

* Mortimer

Silkworms finish their bottoms in fifteen days.

The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, or sea.

An abyss.

(Dryden)

(obsolete) Power of endurance.

a horse of a good bottom

(obsolete) Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.

(Johnson)