3. 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.
4. A hollow place containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a little bay. Pope
5. (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.
6. (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.
Ba"sined (&?;), a. Inclosed in a basin. "Basined rivers." Young.
Bas"i*net (&?;), n. Same as Bascinet.
Ba`si*oc*cip"i*tal (&?;), a. [Basi- + occipital.] (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the bone in the base of the cranium, frequently forming a part of the occipital in the adult, but usually distinct in the young. -- n. The basioccipital bone.
||Ba"si*on (&?;), n. [Gr. ba`sis a base.] (Anat.) The middle of the anterior margin of the great foramen of the skull.
Ba*sip"o*dite (&?;), n. [Basi- + poy`s, podo`s foot.] (Anat.) The basal joint of the legs of Crustacea.
||Ba*sip`te*ryg"i*um (&?;), n. [NL., fr. Gr. ba`sis a base + ptery`gion a fin.] (Anat.) A bar of cartilage at the base of the embryonic fins of some fishes. It develops into the metapterygium. -- Ba*sip`ter*yg"i*al (&?;), a.
Ba`sip*ter"y*goid (&?;), a. & n. [Basi- + pterygoid.] (Anat.) Applied to a protuberance of the base of the sphenoid bone.
Ba"sis (b"ss), n.; pl. Bases (-sz). [L. basis, Gr. ba`sis. See Base, n.] 1. The foundation of anything; that on which a thing rests. Dryden.