phrasal verb · neutral
bottom out
UK/ˈbɒtəm aʊt/US/ˈbɑːtəm aʊt/BOT·tom OUT
task1
to reach the lowest point before starting to rise again
Examples
“The market bottomed out in February and recovered thereafter.”
“Unemployment bottomed out at 4% last quarter.”
“After months of decline, output finally bottomed out.”
Band 8 sentence
“After months of decline, industrial output finally bottomed out in April and began a slow recovery.”
Collocations
- bottom out at
- finally bottom out
- seem to bottom out
Word family
bottom out phrasal verbbottomed out pastbottoming out gerund
Common mistakes
bottomed out to 3%→bottomed out at 3%
the economy bottomed→the economy bottomed out
Say it for a higher band
5reach the lowest point→6hit bottom→7+bottom out
Synonyms
hit rock bottom
Easily confused
hit rock bottom
“Due to the crisis, consumer confidence hit rock bottom last year.”
Related words
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In Peaks & troughs
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