ENGLISH
REFERENCE

basket

n. countable
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford US //ˈbæskət// UK //bˈɑːskɪt// bas·ket Archaic General-service Humorous Informal Slang

n. a container used for carrying or holding things, often made from thin pieces of wood, plastic, or wire. You might use one when you go shopping or to keep fruit in your kitchen.

n. a container woven from organic fibers or constructed from rigid mesh, used for storage or transport. In a sporting context, it refers to the net-hoop assembly in basketball or a successful shot through it.


SIMPLE

She carries a small basket of fresh apples.

CONTEXTUAL

The shopper filled her wire basket with groceries before heading to the checkout counter.

COMPLEX

The artisan spent hours weaving the willow branches into a sturdy basket, ensuring the base was reinforced to support the weight of the harvest.

Synonyms
Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Proto-Brythonicder. Late Latin bascauda Anglo-Norman bascatbor. Middle English basket English basket From Middle English basket, from Anglo-Norman baschet, basket, bascat, of obscure origin. One theory is that it derives from Late Latin bascauda (“kettle, table-vessel”), from Proto-Brythonic (in Breton baskodenn), from Proto-Celtic baskis (“bundle, load”), from purported Proto-Indo-European bʰask- (“bundle”), but this is now widely viewed as a substrate word for phonetic reasons. Related to Latin fascis (“bundle, package, load”) (whence English fasces), Albanian bokshe (“bundle”), Breton bac'h (“bundle, load”), Ancient Greek φάκελος (phákelos) and βάσκιοι (báskioi) (“bundle (of sticks)”); see also faggot (“(originally) bundle of sticks”).

Idioms2 entries

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