Meaning

A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall..

Definitions by Sense

1. A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
2. (obsolete) A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food.
3. A depression, natural or artificial, containing water.
4. (geography) An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin.
5. (geography) A shallow depression in a rock formation, such as an area of down-folded rock that has accumulated a thick layer of sediments, or an area scooped out by water erosion.
6. To create a concavity or depression in.
7. To serve as or become a basin.
8. To shelter or enclose in a basin.

Example Sentences

First, as you know, my house within the city Is richly furnished with plate and gold, Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands;

After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

What then, you will say, must a man sit with his chops and fingers up to the ears and knuckles in grease? No; let those who cannot eat without defiling themselves, step into another room, provided with basons and towels: but I think it would be better to institute schools, where youth may learn to eat their victuals, without daubing themselves, or giving offence to the eyes of one another.

Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey’s tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.

1893, Gilbert Parker, “The March of the White Guard,” in Tavistock Tales, New York: Tait Sons & Co., p. 27, Gaspé Toujours is drinking a basin of tea, and Jeff Hyde is fitfully dozing by the fire.

[…] Mr. John Knightley, ashamed of his ill-humour, was now all kindness and attention; and so particularly solicitous for the comfort of her father, as to seem—if not quite ready to join him in a basin of gruel—perfectly sensible of its being exceedingly wholesome […]

They have a good basin of coffee or cocoa for breakfast […]

He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: ¶ ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’

Word Forms

• basins
• bason
• basining
• basinning
• basined
• basinned

Synonyms for basin

Related Words

When Should You Use Basin?

Use basin when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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