bottleholder

English

Alternative forms

• bottle holder
• bottle-holder

Etymology

From bottle +‎ holder, from the bottle of water they provided to the fighter.

Noun

bottleholder (plural bottleholders)

1. (colloquial) A person who attends a boxer during a bout.

   Synonym: bottleman

2. (colloquial, by extension) One who assists or supports another in a contest; a backer.
   • October 17, 1796, John Philpot Curran, speech on Catholic Emancipation‎^[1]:

     he has called me the bottle-holder of my right honourable friend

References

“bottleholder”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.