BASIN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Basin

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/bˈeɪsən/ Listen

noun

Basin n.

A hollow vessel or dish, to hold water for washing, and for various other uses.

The quantity contained in a basin.

A hollow vessel, of various forms and materials, used in the arts or manufactures, as that used by glass grinders for forming concave glasses, by hatters for molding a hat into shape, etc.

A hollow place containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a little bay.

(Physical Geog.)

(a)

A circular or oval valley, or depression of the surface of the ground, the lowest part of which is generally occupied by a lake, or traversed by a river.

(b)

The entire tract of country drained by a river, or sloping towards a sea or lake.

(Geol.) An isolated or circumscribed formation, particularly where the strata dip inward, on all sides, toward a center; especially applied to the coal formations, called coal basins or coal fields.

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Etymology of 'Basin'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Basin" Quotes from Famous Books

... lay like a toy city at the bottom of a basin. Its wooden houses, each placed neatly in the middle of a little garden-plot, had been painted brightly for the delight of the children. There were whole streets of wooden shops, with verandahs in front of them to shade the real imported goods in their windows; and ...

— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace

... Praise of Chimney Sweepers, "if thou meetest one of these small gentry in thy early rambles, it is good to give him a penny—it is better to give him a twopence." And then Lamb describes the choice and fragrant drink, Saloop, the delight of the sweep, a basin of which together with a slice of delicate bread and butter will cost but a twopence. As we read the description we have no hesitancy in believing that the "unpennied sweep" frequently became a pennied sweep after the gentle Elia had ...

— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb

... handkerchief and a basin," he replied coolly, still fingering a sharp lancet. "You are not afraid? Good girl; ...

— Idle Hour Stories • Eugenia Dunlap Potts

... of neat hands and considerate art was visible about this blessed fountain. An open cistern, hewn and hollowed out of solid stone, was placed above the waters, which filled it to the brim, but by some invisible outlet were conveyed away without dripping down its sides. Though the basin had not room for another drop, and the continual gush of water made a tremor on the surface, there was a secret charm that forbade it to overflow. I remember, that when I had slaked my summer thirst, and sat panting by the cistern, it was my fanciful theory that Nature could not afford ...

— The Snow Image • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... his mission. While he was doing so the Grand Duke strolled to the basin and began to remove his make-up. He favoured, when on the stage, a touch of the Raven Gipsy No. 3 grease-paint. It added a picturesque swarthiness to his appearance, and made him look more like what he felt to be the popular ...

— The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved England - A Tale of the Great Invasion • P. G. Wodehouse

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