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What is "to be at the bottom of"

The Collaborative International Dictionary
To be at the bottom of

Bottom \Bot"tom\ (b[o^]t"t[u^]m), n. [OE. botum, botme, AS. botm; akin to OS. bodom, D. bodem, OHG. podam, G. boden, Icel. botn, Sw. botten, Dan. bund (for budn), L. fundus (for fudnus), Gr. pyqmh`n (for fyqmh`n), Skr. budhna (for bhudhna), and Ir. bonn sole of the foot, W. bon stem, base.

  1. The lowest part of anything; the foot; as, the bottom of a tree or well; the bottom of a hill, a lane, or a page.

    Or dive into the bottom of the deep.
    --Shak.

  2. The part of anything which is beneath the contents and supports them, as the part of a chair on which a person sits, the circular base or lower head of a cask or tub, or the plank floor of a ship's hold; the under surface.

    Barrels with the bottom knocked out.
    --Macaulay.

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

  3. That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.

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

  5. The fundament; the buttocks.

  6. An abyss. [Obs.]
    --Dryden.

  7. Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley. ``The bottoms and the high grounds.''
    --Stoddard.

  8. (Naut.) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship.

    My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.
    --Shak.

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

    Full bottom, a hull of such shape as permits carrying a large amount of merchandise.

  9. Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom.

  10. Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
    --Johnson.

    At bottom, At the bottom, at the foundation or basis; in reality. ``He was at the bottom a good man.''
    --J. F. Cooper.

    To be at the bottom of, to be the cause or originator of; to be the source of. [Usually in an opprobrious sense.]
    --J. H. Newman.

    He was at the bottom of many excellent counsels.
    --Addison.

    To go to the bottom, to sink; esp. to be wrecked.

    To touch bottom, to reach the lowest point; to find something on which to rest.

Usage examples of "to be at the bottom of".

I seemed to be at the bottom of a pit, for there were steep walls on every side.

It's an odd place, lying on flat land at the tip of a peninsula where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet, with heights of some grandeur on either side, so that the town seems to be at the bottom of a gorge.

When he came back to England, and found himself avoided by everybody, the Moonstone was thought to be at the bottom of it again.

With his face turned away, it almost seemed as if he were looking back up at the trail from where he had fallen, as if he might be wondering what had happened and how he had come to be at the bottom of the steep, rocky gorge with his neck broken.

She finished her drink, even the awful coffee-tasting dregs which seemed to be at the bottom of every beverage lately.

Frankly, letting you 'languish in a backwater' is probably going to be at the bottom of her list.