Forms: 3– basket; also 4–5 baskett(e, 5 -att, -yt, 6 baszkett(e, basquette, 7 basquet. [Origin not ascertained: not in Teutonic or Romanic; found in Eng. since 13th c.
Basket has been conjecturally identified with L. bascauda, used by Juvenal and Martial; by the latter (xiv. 99) given as British, ‘Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis, Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam.’ But the senses anciently assigned to bascauda of washing tub or tray ‘vasa ubi calices lavabantur, cacabus,’ or brazen vessel ‘conchæ æreæ, genera vasorum’ Papias (see Du Cange), do not favor this identification. The word is unknown in Old Irish or Welsh (basgawd is a figment invented to suggest bascauda), and the mod. Celtic words, Welsh basged, Corn. basced, Ir. basceid, Gael. bascaid, cannot phonetically be descended from an original bascauda, but seem to be simply adopted from Eng. (Prof. Rhys). At present, therefore, there is no evidence to connect basket with bascauda, or to refer it to a Celtic origin.]
1. A vessel of wickerwork, made of plaited osiers, cane, rushes, bast, or other materials.
a. 1300. W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 158. Un corbel, a litel basket.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. Prol., 117. I wil do no labour with myn hondes, Ne make basketis and lyve therby.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. xvii. (1495), 357. A gardyner gaderynge grapes in a baskette.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings x. 7. They … slewe them … and layed their heades in baszkettes.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iii. 137. Looke, heere is a basket … he may creepe in heere.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, II. (1669), 61. With gilded basquets in their hands.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 293. High in wicker-baskets heaped.
1863. Stanley, Jew. Ch., v. 104. His mother placed him in a small boat or basket of papyrus.
b. with sb. defining the purpose, as alms-basket, bread-basket, clothes-basket, eel-basket, work-basket.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, iii. 43. A high weir, with all its appendages of bucks and hatchways, and eel-baskets.
1863. Miss Whately, Ragged Life Egypt, vii. 50. A work-basket was stocked.
1868. ‘Holme Lee,’ B. Godfrey, i. 2. Everywhere … hung … clothes-baskets, work-baskets, toy-baskets, market-baskets.
c. taken as the type of daily provisions; also, of alms, formerly in special reference to the alms-basket on which poor prisoners in the public gaols were mainly dependent for their sustenance; hence To go to the basket: i.e., to prison.
1535. Coverdale, Deut. xxviii. 5. Blessed shal be thy baszkett, & thy stoare.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, V. i. Pontalier [to Liladam, who is in custody for debt], Go to the basket, and repent.
1679. Trials of White, etc., 75. He was in the Marshalsey, and lived a poor mean life, and all the time fed upon the Basket.
c. 1700. Gentl. Instruc. (1732), 6 (D.). God be praised! I am not brought to the basket though I had rather live on charity than rapine.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. ii. 16. Living, as Prisoners in Ludgate, of the Basket.
1866. Neale, Seq. & Hymns, 80. Helpless, hopeless, if Thou spare not, Of their basket and their store.
d. phrases. To pin the basket: to conclude the matter (obs.). To be left in the basket: to remain unchosen, or to the last (like the worst apples, etc.). The pick of the basket: i.e., of the lot or number.
a. 1659. Osborn, Observ. Turks, Pref. (1673), 4. Steer contrary to the current of Antiquity, imagined only by idle Dunces, to have pinned the Basket.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. Fr. King, Wks. 1730, I. 61. Thus far in jest; but now to pin the basket, May’st thou to England come.
1756. W. Young, Lat. Dict., s.v. Pin, To pin the basket … concludo, conficio, finio.
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg., House-warm. (D.). And all other suitors are ‘left in the basket.’
1874. Bell’s Life, 26 Dec. The pick of the basket, a compact young greyhound.
2. The quantity that fills a basket, a basketful; used as a measure of uncertain amount.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Basket … of Medlars, two Bushels; Assa-fœtida, 20 to 50 lib. Weight.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. A basket of the first cherries … was accepted … by the king.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, xii. (1880), 456. I killed baskets of white trout.
3. A wickerwork protection for the hand on a sword-stick, in the form of a small basket; ellipt. a basket-hilt sword or stick.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., IV. Tony, I’ll fight you both, one after the other—with baskets.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 171. This exercise should … be tried with … sticks with baskets.
† 4. A head-dress of wickerwork, or of basket shape. Obs.
1555. Fardle Facions, II. x. 219. Their maried Women weare on their heades, fine wickre Basquettes of a foote and a haulf long.
1606. Choice Chance, etc. (1881), 33. This youth in a basket, with a face of Brasse.
5. The overhanging back compartment on the outside of a stage-coach. arch.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., V. (1780), 249. It has shook me worse than the basket of a stage-coach.
1827. Macaulay, Clergym. Trip Camb., in Misc. (1865), 374. There were parsons in hood and in basket; There were parsons below and above.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xi. Long stages, with a basket to hold six behind.
6. Mil. A gabion.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., At sieges, they make use of a small basket filled with earth, and ranged on the top of the parapet.
7. A part of the hinder leg of the bee, adapted to carry pollen.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. 208. The leg [of the Bee] is dilated, and forms a triangular cavity on its inner surface, which is known as the ‘basket.’
8. The vase of a Corinthian capital, with its foliage, etc. Gwilt.
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
9. A wickerwork or wire screen used in hat-making.
B. Comb. and Attrib.
1. General relations: a. objective with vbl. or agent-noun or pr. pple., as basket-bearer, -bearing, -carrier, -maker, -making, -seller; b. attrib. of material (= formed as a basket, or of basket-work), as basket-balcony, -bonnet, -box, -carriage, -grate, -net, -trap, -ware; c. attrib. of purpose (= used for baskets or basket-making), as basket-osier, -twine; d. attrib. of origin (= carried in a basket), as basket-alms, -dole.
1660. Earl Roscom., Poems (1780), 53. With *basket-alms scarce kept alive.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, xv. 223. The hideous *basket-balcony over the main door.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. *Basketbearer, hochqueteur.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. i. The mysterious *Basket-bearing stranger.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 51. The pockets are almost full, and so is the *basket-bonnet.
1881. Miss Yonge, Lads & Lasses of L., iii. 133. A porter … with a large foreign *basket-box on his shoulders.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, II. viii. 161. The little *basket carriage.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xxx. VI. 150. One of the Kanêphoræ or *basket-carriers.
1618. Holyday, Juvenal, 4. A *basket-doal at the outmost door to wait.
1603. Patient Grissil, 6. I’ll hamper somebody if I die because I am a *basket-maker.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., x. 47. To teach the art and mystery of *basket-making.
1652. Sterry, Eng. Deliv. North. Presb., 12. *Basket-nets laid in those Wyers, to catch Lampries.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B., 5. Jacke *basket seler.
1866. Livingstone, Jrnl., v. (1873), I. 123. Hunting with a dog and *basket-trap.
1833. Tennyson, Poems, 82. Piles of flavorous fruits, in *basket-twine Of gold, up-heapèd.
1858. W. Ellis, Vis. Madagascar, iii. 61. *Basket-ware, cooper’s work.
2. Special combinations: basket-beagle, a small dog used to hunt a basket-hare; basket-boat, a boat of basket-work; in India, a circular basket of 10 or 12 ft. diameter, covered with skins; basket-button, a metal button with a basket-pattern on it, instead of crest or arms; basket-clerk (see quot.); basket-darning, darning in which the threads cross each other above and below, like simple wickerwork; basket-fish, a star-fish of the genus Astrophyton, with five rays divided into a number of curled filaments; basket-hare, one turned out of a basket to be coursed (cf. bag-fox); basket-justice (see quot.); basket-osier, the Salix Forbyana; basket-salt, that made from salt-springs, of finer quality than ordinary salt, so called from the vessels in which the brine is evaporated; basket-scrambler, one who scrambles for the dole from a basket, i.e., who lives on charity; basket-stick, a fencing-stick with a wickerwork protection for the hand; basket-stitch (cf. basket-darning); basket-stones, fossil fragments of the stems of Crinoidea; basket-woman, one who carries goods for sale in a basket; basket-work, structure composed of interlaced osiers, twigs, etc., or so carved as to resemble it.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, i. 19 (D.). Grey-headed sportsmen, who had sunk from fox-hounds to *basket-beagles and coursing.
1801. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 357. Communication … kept up by means of the common *Basket boats.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, II. V. viii. 522. Crossing in basket-boats at Trichinopoly.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz (1877), 173. In a blue coat and bright *basket buttons.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. (1851), 376. The Clergy had thir Portions given them in Baskets, and were thence call’d sportularii, *basket-clerks.
1884. Mrs. Burton Harrison, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 346/2. The darned threads … are not crossed by a returning thread, as in ordinary *basket darning.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Basket-fish … a name given by the English in North America to a very remarkable fish, sonetimes caught in the seas thereabout.
a. 1698. Howard, Committee, IV. (D.). As if we had brought a *basket-hare to be set down and hunted.
1860. Wynter, Curios. Civiliz., 493. The *basket justices were so called because they allowed themselves to be bought over by presents of game.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., *Basket salt … is … made from the water of our salt springs in Cheshire.
1769. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LIX. 148. Grains of salt … about the size of the finest *basket salt.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 40. With fine young fencers, *basquet-scramblers, thus It pleas’d vaine Otho to distinguish us.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 66. The files being prepared with masks and *basket-sticks.
1883. Daily News, 12 July, 3/5. Embroidered in raised gold, worked in *basket stitch on white satin.
1851. Richardson, Geol., ii. 24. Variously termed … cheesestones, *basketstones, caskstones.
1694. Luttrell, Brief Rel., III. 403. Having gott armes, brought them the day before by *basket women.
1837. Marryat, Dog-fiend, ix. The *basket-women fitted about displaying their stores.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Dame-jeanne, a … large bottle … covered with *basket-work.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., iv. 123. Its venerable pillars and beautiful *basket-work capitals.
