Bottle 勇敢，勇气

Neil

So, big presentation today, Feifei! How are you feeling? 

Feifei
Yeah, I'm ok, Neil. 今天我要在公司做一个重要的报告，虽然一切就绪，可我还是有点儿紧张。 I do feel a bit nervous… I just need to remind myself to slow down and take a sip of water when I feel anxious! 

Neil
Good plan! OK, I'll see you later. Good luck… Hey! So how did it go?

Feifei
Not great.

Neil
What happened? You lost your bottle?

Feifei
Actually, I took a glass of water.

Neil
Ah right. You know the phrase 'to lose your bottle' means 'to lose your confidence and fail to do something, or decide not to do it'.

Feifei
在英语里，单词 bottle 除了有我们熟知的“瓶子”的意思，它还有“勇气，敢于冒险的意思”，那么表达 lose your bottle 的意思则是由于失去勇气而没能做成一件事情。Thanks for teaching me this phrase when I'm feeling awful. 

Neil
Ah, yeah. I'm sorry about that. You can also simply say 'to bottle it' which means 'to lose your courage and fail to do something'.

Feifei
是的，我们也可以说 bottle it，它的意思和 lose your bottle 是一样的。

Neil
Err, examples time?

Examples
He was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him but lost his bottle at the last minute. She asked him instead.

I thought about painting my front door bright green but I bottled it. I went for a conservative grey instead.

Feifei
Anyway Neil, aren't you giving a presentation this afternoon? 

Neil
I was going to.

Feifei
Oh? You mean, you're not going to do it now? 

Neil
Well, you see, I just had so much work on this week, and I don't really have time and, you know, I'm just so busy…

Feifei
Yeah, yeah, I get it. You bottled it.

Neil
You got me. I just hate presentations!

Feifei
Well, that makes two of us! Bye.

Neil
Bye.