BASIN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... susceptible of impressions; very impatient of what one is not used to. The very four-post bed in which I slept oppressed me, and the cracked basin held together for years by the circular hole in the old-fashioned washstand. The execution-picture only ...

— Six to Sixteen - A Story for Girls • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... silver trumpets, and three of them gold, all the mouth-pieces being finely wrought and set with jewels. Although in full day, the hall was lighted by many silver lamps, in the fashion of the Moors. Close by the king there stood a spitting basin of gold, and several silver perfuming-pans, which produced an excellent odour. Six paces from the king, he was attended on by his two brothers, who were the nearest heirs to the kingdom; and a little farther off were many ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr

... to find the basin and obeyed, and when his eyes were cleaned he looked and beheld our hero sitting there with a ...

— Two Wonderful Detectives - Jack and Gil's Marvelous Skill • Harlan Page Halsey

... pans, hair-combs and other similar objects was playing in the back court of the club, in the centre of which there was a fountain. Some enterprising member had offered a prize to anyone who hopped twice round the narrow parapet, surrounding its basin, without falling in, while keeping time to the music. It certainly was difficult to follow the strains of that band. From a very slow and dignified movement the music suddenly broke into the quickest time that ever any tune was played. The result was ...

— The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon • Jose Maria Gordon

... compare such objects from memory: the Donkia one was much the most uniform in height.] and crosses the valley from N.N.E. to S.S.W. From the summit, which rises above the level of the glacier, and from which I assume its present retirement, a most striking scene opened. The ice filling an immense basin, several miles broad and long, formed a low dome,* [This convexity of the ice is particularly alluded to by Forbes ("Travels in the Alps," p.386), as the "renflement" of Rendu and "surface bombee" of Agassiz, and is attributed to the effects of hydrostatic pressure tending ...

— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

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