Word.ws English Dictionary

cover the bases

cover the bases is the alternative form of cover one's bases.

Meaning of cover one's bases

Verb

cover one's bases (third-person singular simple present covers one's bases, present participle covering one's bases, simple past and past participle covered one's bases)

  1. (idiomatic) To be thorough; to prepare thoroughly or completely.
    • She eats a balanced diet, but takes vitamin pills anyway, to cover her bases.

Forms of cover the bases

third-person singular presentcovers the bases
present participlecovering the bases
past participlecovered the bases
pastcovered the bases

Questions about cover the bases

What is cover the bases the alternative form of?
Cover the bases is the alternative form of cover one's bases.

Words near cover the bases in the dictionary

  1. cover songs
  2. cover stock
  3. cover stocks
  4. cover stories
  5. cover story
  6. cover the bases
  7. cover the buckle
  8. cover the spot
  9. cover the waterfront
  10. cover to cover
  11. cover up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cover the bases (page history and authors); cover one's bases (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cover the bases.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cover_the_bases. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.