basin

Pluralbasins

Formsbasins, basining, basined

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A wide bowl for washing your hands or face, sometimes fixed to a wall.

   He washed his hands in the basin before dinner.

   The hotel room had a small basin on the wall next to the mirror.

   Similarsink

   Note
2. 2
   nouncountable

   A hollow place, natural or built by people, that holds water.

   Coins glittered at the bottom of the fountain's basin.

   Birds splashed in a little basin of rainwater on top of the rock.

   Similarpool

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An area of land where all the water flows toward one shared place.

   Like a huge funnel made of hills, where every drop runs down to the same spot.

   The rain that falls in this basin ends up in one big river.

   Towns all across the basin get their water from the same lake.

   Similarwatershed, catchment

   Note
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A shallow dip in rock, such as where rock bends down and fills with mud or where water wears it away.

   Over a very long time, the basin filled up with layers of sand and mud.

   The river wore a round basin into the flat rock.

   Similarhollow, depression

   Note
5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To make a curved dip or hollow in something.

   The heavy ice basined the land under it and left a wide dip.

   Coin makers basin the metal stamp so the face of the coin curves a little.

   Similarhollow

   Note
6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To work as a basin, or to turn into one.

   Over a long time, the land began to basin and hold a lake.

   The sides of the old pit basined down to a flat bottom.

   Note
7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To hold something inside a low, bowl-shaped place, keeping it closed in or safe.

   Tall cliffs basin the quiet lake on three sides.

   The farm was basined among low hills, safe from the worst storms.

   Similarenclose, surround, encircle, shelter

   Note

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