hit the bottle vs souse

hit the bottle is not a noun while souse is a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
hit the bottle	No	No	Yes	No
souse	Yes	No	Yes	No

As verbs, souse is a hyponym of hit the bottle; that is, souse is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than hit the bottle:

Other hyponyms of hit the bottle include tank, port, claret, bar hop, pub-crawl, bib, tipple, hit it up, inebriate, soak, wine, carry, hold.

hit the bottle (noun)	souse (noun)
	the act of making something completely wet
	pork trimmings chopped and pickled and jelled
	a person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually

hit the bottle (verb)	souse (verb)
consume alcohol	cook in a marinade
	cover with liquid; pour liquid onto
	become drunk or drink excessively
	immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate