http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal...

To bottle out, I`ve not heard of "to bottle" except in to bottle feed a baby

AFAIK, a bottler is a loser - can someone confirm this?

To bottle out of something is basically the same as chicken out ! Which in turn is the same as loosing ones nerve before having to do something !

a wimp, to wimp out. I've got it now, thanks.

We had a similar discussion yesterday - related discussion: to bottle it

For those who aren't already aware, this phrase is currently all over the British media thanks to David Cameron, who accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of "bottling it", after Brown's aides floated the idea of calling an impromptu general election and then backtracked. The Conservative party claimed that the retreat was prompted by Labour's poor showing in recent opinion polls.

So it does work as a verb? You can bottle something without the out?

it might just as well refer to him putting the lid back on a discussion he doesn't want to have - put the genie (=talk of a new government) back in the bottle

@Selkie
Yes, you can "bottle" a big decision, or just "bottle it", i.e. wimp out. It's a common UK slang expression - it's been around for decades, if not longer. I don't think it has anything to do with what odondon has suggested