basins

Noun

basin (plural basins)

1. A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
   • First, as you know, my house within the city
     Is richly furnished with plate and gold,
     Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands;c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

   Synonyms:

   sink

2. (obsolete) A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food.
   • […] 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 […]1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC
3. A depression, natural or artificial, containing water.
   • This shortly brought them to a bewitching spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering crystals […]1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 31, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC
4. An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin.
   • Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.2012 January, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 23 May 2012, page 46
5. 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. An enclosed or sheltered area of water where boats are moored, often equipped with piers, wharves, or docks.
   • ‘Wondered if there was any chance of mooring my boat here. Basin’s pretty crowded.’ ‘Nope.’1954, Ian Fleming, “Death of a Pelican”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957

See all 11 meanings of basin