Could it be that a bottle smashes? Like someones confidence smashes. Have no idea but seems reasonable.
couple of theories 1 - its derived from cockney slang and to do with 'bottle and glass' (arse) - so losing your arse or ****ting it 2 - A more likely source is the earlier slang phrase 'not much bottle', or 'no bottle', i.e. 'useless; no good for anything'. This usage is recorded in a glossary of 19th century street English slang The Swell's Night Guide, 1846: "She thought it would be no bottle, cos her rival could go in a buster." The phrase continued in use in the 20th century and certainly overlapped with the first known example in print of 'bottle out', i.e. the BBC magazine The Listener, March 1979: "This is the big crime, for them: if they are informers or if they don't have the courage to do a crime. They, as they say, âbottle outâ. The use of 'bottle out' hasn't spread greatly outside of the UK. The US still prefers their own version - 'chicken out'. Its not to do with bottles thrown at performers on stage as some think
