also 4–6 baske. [app. for earlier *bathask, a. baðask, in later Icel. baðast to bathe oneself, refl. of baða to bathe. (With loss of th cf. or from other, sou’ west, etc.)]
† 1. intr. (also refl., and with pa. pple. quasi-trans.) To bathe, especially in warm water or liquid, and so transf. to be suffused with, or swim in, blood, etc. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 290. The child lay bathend in her blood … And for the blood was hote and warme He basketh him about therinne.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, V. xxxvii. Seynge his brother baskynge in his bloud.
c. 1525. Skelton, Replyc., Wks. I. 209. Basked and baththed in their wylde burblyng … blode.
1530. Palsgr., 444/1. I baske, I bathe in water or any lycour, Je baigne (Lydgate).
2. trans. To expose to a flood of warmth, to suffuse with genial warmth. (Cf. to bathe in sunshine.) Chiefly refl.; = 3.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 15. A foole, Who laid him downe, and bask’d him in the Sun.
1632. Milton, Allegro, 110. The lubbar fiend … Basks at the fire his hairy strength.
1678. Wycherley, Pl.-Dealer, I. i. 3. To go … and bask himself on the sunny side of the Globe.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 163. Other Birds bask themselves in the Dust.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 542. The seer … Basks on the breezy shore … His oozy limbs.
3. intr. To expose oneself to, or disport oneself in, an ambient flood of genial warmth, as in the sunshine, the rays of a fire; to lie enjoying the heat which radiates upon one.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 473. Where basking in the Sun-shine they may lye.
1718. Pope, Iliad, III. 198. Antenor … Lean’d on the walls, and bask’d before the sun.
1819. S. Rogers, Hum. Life, 15. Basking in the chimney’s ample blaze.
1841. Borrow, Zincali, I. iv. I. 76. The swarthy children basked naked in the sun.
1873. G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xiv. 109. A large pike was basking over the weeds.
b. fig. of the ‘sunshine’ of love, favor, prosperity.
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Change, i. Love in her Sunny eyes does basking play.
1791. Burke, Let. Memb. Assembly, Wks. VI. 27. Basking in the sunshine of unmerited fortune.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. v. 382. Traitors basking in the royal smiles.
