The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bottleholder \Bot"tle*hold`er\, n.
One who attends a pugilist in a prize fight; -- so called from the bottle of water of which he has charge.
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One who assists or supports another in a contest; an abettor; a backer. [Colloq.]
Lord Palmerston considered himself the bottleholder of oppressed states.
--The London Times.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context colloquial English) One who attends a pugilist in a prizefight. 2 (context colloquial by extension English) One who assists or supports another in a contest; a backer.
Usage examples of "bottleholder".
Only those things remained in his room that he always took with him: his dressing case, a huge silver bottleholder, two Turkish pistols, and a saber which his father had captured at Ochakof and presented to him.
The British mind contemplates the spectacle of American destroyers acting as bottleholders to German submarines with a dazzled astonishment.