Basin

sb. Forms: 3 bascin, bacin, 4–5 bacine, bacyn(e, bassyn(e, -eyn, 4–6 basyn, 5 basson, bassyng, -ien, bacen, 6 bayseyn, bassine, basing, baiseing, 6–7 basen, 8 bassin, 6– bason, 5– basin. [ME. bacin, bascin, a. OF. bacin (12th c. in Littré), mod. bassin (= Picard bachin, Pr., Sp. bacin, It. bacino):—late L. bachīnus, bacchīnus; in Greg. of Tours, 6th c., ‘vulgo’ bacchīnon; supposed by some to be for baccīnus, -um, and to be a derivative of bacca ‘vas aquārium’ Isidore. Thence also OHG. becchin, mod.G. becken, Du. bekken. The med.L. had bacīnus, bassīnus from the mod. langs. The ulterior source is unknown: the Celtic bacc- ‘hook, crook,’ to which Diez and others have referred it, has no derivative with any approach to the sense of ‘basin’: see Thurneysen.]

  I.  A hollow circular vessel.

  1.  A circular vessel of greater width than depth, with sloping or curving sides, used for holding water and other liquids, especially for washing purposes. Barber’s basin: see BARBER sb. 3.

c. 1220.  St. Marher., 9. His twa ehnen … brad as bascins.

c. 1330.  Florice & Bl., 550. Water and cloth and bacyn For to wasschen his hondes in.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, VII. 3169. Bassons of bright gold.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, B v a. Put it in a bassien of brasse.

1513–75.  Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 103. The basing and the lawar.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shrew, II. i. 350. Basons and ewers, to laue her dainty hands.

1616.  R. C., Times’ Whis., iv. 1613. Faire water in a basen.

1726.  Gay, Fables, I. xxi. 23. His pole with pewter basons hung.

1794.  G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. iii. 70. A barometer … immersed in a bason of mercury.

c. 1845.  Lane, Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 290. The slave brought a basin and water; the prince then washed himself.

  b.  The quantity held by a basin; a basinful.

1834.  Ht. Martineau, Farrers, vii. 127. [She] made a basin of tea.

Mod.  A basin of soup on a cold day.

  2.  A similar circular dish for any purpose.

1525.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. cxvi. (R.). His bedde was wont to be chafed with a bason of hote coles.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Sat. Antients (1730), I. 14. Satura Lanx was properly a bason filled with all sorts of fruit.

1777.  J. Richardson, Dissert. East. Nations, 26. Four large basons filled with gold and silver.

Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun., Shall receive the Alms for the Poor … in a decent bason.

  3.  The scale-dish of a balance.

1413.  Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, I. xvi. (1859), 18. Lete hym put it in the ryȝt bacyn of the balaunce.

1727–51.  Chambers, Cycl., Basons of a Balance.

1833.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 292. The boards or basins are suspended by means of hooks to the ends of the beam.

  † 4.  pl. Hollow metal dishes clashed together to produce sound; ? cymbals. The beating of metal basins was formerly part of the mocking accompaniment when infamous persons were condemned to be publicly carted. Obs.

c. 1302.  Pol. Songs (1839), 189. The Flemmysche … Agynneth to clynken huere basyns of bras.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. vi. 133. Forto rescowe þe moone [in eclipses] þei betyn hire basines wiþ þikke strokes.

1604.  Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 181. Why before her does the Bason ring?

1609.  B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., III. v. (N.). Let there be no bawd carted that year, to employ a bason of his.

  5.  spec. a. A concave tool used by glass-grinders in the manufacture of convex glasses.

1727–51.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Various kinds of basons, of copper, iron, etc. … some deeper, others shallower, according to the focus of the glasses that are to be ground.

  † 6.  The hollow part of a plate or dish. Obs.

1662.  Pepys, Diary, 21 July. Silver dishes and plates … in the edges and basins of which was placed … gold medals.

  7.  A helmet; a BASINET. Obs.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 2333. So he tok his basyn, That hit clevyd into the chyn.

c. 1325.  Coeur de L., 2557. Some he hytte on the bacyn, That he cleff hym to the chyn.

  † 8.  Phys. a. The pelvis; b. A funnel-shaped cavity situated between the anterior ventricles of the brain. Obs.

1727–51.  in Chambers, Cycl.

1760.  Brady, in Phil. Trans., LI. 660. A bone found in the pelvis or bason of a man.

1771.  J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg., Dict. Cc b. The Pelvis, or Bason of the Kidnies.

  II.  A hollow depression, natural or artificial.

  9.  A hollow receptacle, natural or artificial, containing water.

1712.  Blackmore, Creation, I. (1715), 30 (J.).

1764.  Harmer, Observ., X. viii. 327. Their waters being conveyed by acqueducts into two very large basons.

18[?].  Wordsw., Idle Sheph. Boys. And in a basin black and small Receives a lofty waterfall.

1867.  Lady Herbert, Cradle L., viii. 213. Inland basins of rain-water.

  10.  A dock constructed in a tidal river or harbor, in which by means of flood-gates the water is kept at a constant level, used for ships discharging or lading cargo, or when laid up.

1709.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4510/5. A great Fleet of Merchant Ships … have contracted with the Officers of his Majesty’s Customs to open their way into the great Basin of this City.

1815.  Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., XII. 265. A wet dock or basin of considerable size and depth may be considered nessesary for the trade of Antwerp.

  b.  Part of a river or canal widened and furnished with wharfs for the lading and unlading of barges.

1837.  Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 203. Basins are formed near towns to which the canal has a communication.

  11.  A land-locked harbor; a bay.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., VI. 315. The spacious basins arching rocks enclose.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xxxi. 191. The largest vessels securely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basons.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 226. His army … was encamped round the basin of La Hogue.

1866.  Thoreau, Yankee in Canada, ii. 20. Here we were, in the harbor of Quebec … in a basin two miles across.

  12.  Phys. Geog. The tract of country drained by a river and its tributaries, or which drains into a particular lake or sea.

[1792.  A. Young, Trav. France, 289. Modern French geographers … have divided the kingdom into what they call bassins … into several great plains, through which flow the principal rivers.]

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 434. The hydrographical basin of the Thames.

1860.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, v. § 270. The basin of the Amazon is usually computed at 1,512,000 square miles. Ibid., xii. § 534. The basin of the Dead Sea … and the other inland basins of Asia.

  13.  gen. A circular or oval valley or hollow.

c. 1854.  Stanley, Sinai & Pal., v. 243. The traveller finds himself in a wide basin, encircled by hills.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. § 23. 166. The basin had been scooped by glaciers.

  14.  Geol. A circumscribed formation in which the strata dip inward from all sides to the center; the stratified deposit, especially of coal, lying in such a depression.

1821.  Abridgem. R. Turner’s Arts. & Sc., 230. What is called a coal-field, or district, or sometimes a coal-basin.

1850.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., Gloss. 776. Basin of Paris, Basin of London. Deposits lying in a hollow or trough, formed of older rocks.

1877.  Green, Phys. Geol., ix. § 3. 347. If the beds dip everywhere towards a centre, they … form a basin.

  III.  Comb., chiefly attrib., as basin-pan, -sign, -stand; also basin-like, -shaped, adj.; basinful, the content of a basin; basin-wide a., as wide as a basin (cf. saucer-eyed).

1799.  G. Smith, Laborat., I. 434. Take two *basonfuls of river sand.

1836–9.  Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., II. 134/2. A horny *basin-like cavity.

1462.  Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 261. Wirt-pannes, *basyn-pan.

1859.  Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., V. 146/2. The pelvis offers a *basin-shaped structure.

1613.  Rowlands, Spy-Knaues, B iij b. First to my Barber, at his *Bason signe.

1842.  T. Martin, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec. Ducking and diving into the *basin-stand.

1591.  Spenser, M. Hubberd, 670. Then gan the Courtiers … stare on him, with big lookes *basen wide.