# basin

Pronunciation: say "BAY-suhn" /ˈbeɪs(ə)n/

## Noun

1. A broad bowl that holds water for washing, sometimes mounted on a wall.
   - Simple: A wide bowl for washing your hands or face, sometimes fixed to a wall.
   - _She ran warm water into the basin and scrubbed the paint off her fingers._
   - _The old farmhouse kept an enamel basin and a pitcher on a stand by the back door._
2. A hollow, either natural or made by people, that holds water.
   - Simple: A hollow place, natural or built by people, that holds water.
   - _Water from the fountain spilled over into a wide marble basin._
   - _At dusk the deer came down to drink from the rocky basins below the falls._
3. An area of land from which water drains into one common outlet, also called a drainage basin.
   - Simple: An area of land where all the water flows toward one shared place.
   - _Rain that falls anywhere in the basin eventually reaches the same river._
   - _Farms across the basin draw on a single river, so a dry year hurts everyone at once._
4. A shallow depression in a rock formation, such as a down-folded area that has filled with a thick layer of sediment, or a hollow carved out by water erosion.
   - Simple: A shallow dip in rock, such as where rock bends down and fills with mud or where water wears it away.
   - _Coal seams lie buried deep in the basin, beneath thick layers of younger sediment._
   - _Swirling floodwater carved a smooth basin into the granite streambed._

## Verb

5. To form a concave hollow or depression in something.
   - Simple: To make a curved dip or hollow in something.
   - _Over thousands of years, the weight of the ice sheet basined the crust beneath it._
   - _Mint workers used to basin each die so that the coin's face would have a gentle curve._
6. To act as a basin, or to take on the form of one.
   - Simple: To work as a basin, or to turn into one.
   - _Where the crust stretched and thinned, the shelf began to basin, and sediment piled up in the low ground._
   - _Gradual basining of the valley floor left a shallow lake behind the ridge._
7. To enclose or shelter something in a basin.
   - Simple: To hold something inside a low, bowl-shaped place, keeping it closed in or safe.
   - _Steep hills basin the little town and keep off the worst of the winter wind._
   - _Each young tree was basined with a ring of soil so that water would pool around its roots._

## Noun

8. A shallow bowl holding a single serving of a drink or of a runny food such as gruel. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A shallow bowl for one serving of a drink or of soft, runny food.
   - _She sat by the fire, sipping coffee from a chipped basin._
   - _The patient was allowed only a basin of broth for supper._

## Origin

From Middle English basyn, from Old French bacin, from Vulgar Latin *baccinum ("wide bowl").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/basin (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).