bottling up
Keeping emotions contained
Bottling up means suppressing or containing emotions rather than expressing them: He'd been bottling up his anger for years.
The image is of sealing feelings inside like liquid in a bottle, where pressure builds.
The phrase usually carries negative connotations—bottled-up emotions tend to emerge eventually, often destructively.
- suppressingForcibly restraining or inhibiting
- hidingStaying out of sight
- stiflingOppressively hot and close
- holdingMaintaining physical possession
- holding backPreventing forward movement
capping · repression · concealing · burying · encapsulating · preserving · pent-up · tension · internalizing · anxiety · frustration · keeping · containment · withholding · walls up · enclosing · storing · restraint
- bad habitssmoking, drinking, lying, swearing, gossiping
- self-controlself-control, restraint, willpower, composure, moderation
- emotional responsesfacial expression, tone of voice, temper tantrum, mood swing, silent treatment
- detachmentemotional numbness, detached, dispassion, disengaged, indifference
- emotional maskingmasking, suppression, repression, hiding, poker face
- suppressionrepression, inhibition, restraint, silencing, muzzling
bottling upventing
Releasing emotion verbally
expressing · letting out · opening up · sharing · releasing
bottling upletting go
Releasing one's grasp
releasing · uncorking · overflowing · bursting · erupting