baskets

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of basket.

   Wicker baskets lined the market stalls, brimming with fresh produce.

   She wove two baskets from dried reeds over the weekend.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here. The same word is also the present-tense verb in "she baskets the produce" (the verb form). As a plural it follows whichever basket is meant: wicker containers, wire shopping baskets, the hoops a ball is thrown through, or figurative sets of intangible things. A number or determiner in front (two baskets, the baskets) marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of basket.

   The sorter baskets each batch of fruit by size before it ships.

   Whenever the harvest comes in, she baskets the produce for market.

   Note

   Publishing gives this form an unexpected subject. Besides putting things into baskets, the verb means cross-collateralizing royalty advances. A publisher that baskets an author's books pays the author nothing further until all of those works reach a set level of success. Both uses are transitive, so the form needs an object. You write "she baskets the produce," never simply "she baskets."

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