[f. BASK v. + -ING2.]
1. That basks or suns himself.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 19. Take Phœbus to yourselves, ye basking bards!
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 303. The basking pike’s abode.
2. Basking-shark: the largest species of shark (Selachus maximus), called also Sun-fish and Sail-fish, found in the Northern Seas: see quot. 1802.
1769. Pennant, Zool., III. 78.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 97. The basking shark has derived its name from its propensity to lie on the surface of the water, as if to bask itself in the sun.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 149. The huge basking-shark of six-and-thirty feet.
