Also 6–7 baste. [Common Teut.: OE. bæst is cogn. with MHG., mod.G., MDu., Du. bast (masc.), Goth. *bastus not found, also ON., Da., Sw. bast (neuter), all in same sense. Ulterior deriv. unknown: not related to bind (Kluge). See also the corrupted form BASS sb.2]
1. The inner bark of the lime or linden, which, cut into strips and coarsely plaited, is sold as ‘Russia matting’; also applied generally to flexible fibrous barks, and other similar materials (cf. BASS sb.2), and in Physiological Botany to all fibers of the same cellular structure.
a. 800. Corpus Gl. (Sweet, O. E. T., 101), Tilio, baest.
[c. 1000. Ælfric, Judg. xiii. 15. Híʓ da hine ʓebundon mid twám bæstenum rápum.]
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XI. 4773. Till all was bare as a bast.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 136. Bastes or pyllynge of wythy or elme.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 178. Ropes of bast.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 213. Baste or the bark of twigs, spartum.
1872. Q. Rev., CXXXII. 221. They make paper of the fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood and the bark.
1881. Blackmore, Christowell, iii. With … a trail of bast around her neck.
b. attrib., as in bast-cell, -fibre, -mat, -tree.
c. 1425. in Wülcker, Voc., /647. Tilia, baste-tre.
1577. Harrison, Descr. Brit., iii. They bind the planks togither verie artificiallie with bast ropes.
1660. Act 12 Chas. II., iv. Sched., Bast or straw-hats knotted.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), III. V. vi. 201. They skewer a bast mat round their shoulders.
1880. Gray, Bot. Text-Bk., 398. Bast-cells … give to the kinds of inner bark that largely contain them their strength and toughness.
2. A rope, mat, etc., made of bast; cf. BASS sb.2
c. 1450[?]. MS. Lincoln A i. 17 f. 127 (Halliw.). Ȝe salle take a stalworthe baste, And bynde my handes byhynd me faste.
