Base

//beɪs// adj, name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Low in height; short. obsolete

    "The cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot."

  2. 2
    Low in place or position.

    "I see thy glory like a shooting star / Fall to the base earth from the firmament."

  3. 3
    Of low value or degree. obsolete

    "If thou livest in paine and sorrow, thy base courage is the cause of it, To die there wanteth but will."

  4. 4
    Of low social standing or rank; vulgar, common. archaic

    "UUhat meanes the mightie Turkiſh Emperor To talke with one ſo baſe as Tamburlaine?"

  5. 5
    Morally reprehensible, immoral; cowardly.

    "a cruel act of a base and a cowardish mind"

Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    Inferior; unworthy, of poor quality. archaic

    "'Like this horrible film.' 'Horrible?' Lenina was genuinely astonished. 'But I thought it was lovely.' 'It was base,' he said indignantly, 'it was ignoble.'"

  2. 7
    Not considered precious or noble.
  3. 8
    Alloyed with inferior metal; debased.

    "base coin"

  4. 9
    Of illegitimate birth; bastard. obsolete

    "Why bastard? Wherefore base?"

  5. 10
    Not classical or correct.

    "base Latin"

  6. 11
    Obsolete form of bass. alt-of, obsolete

    "the base tone of a violin"

  7. 12
    Relating to feudal land tenure held by a tenant from a lord in exchange for services that are seen as unworthy for noblemen to perform, such as villeinage.

    "A base estate is one held by services not honourable, or held by villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant is a base tenant."

Adjective
  1. 1
    debased; not genuine wordnet
  2. 2
    illegitimate wordnet
  3. 3
    having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality wordnet
  4. 4
    of low birth or station (‘base’ is archaic in this sense) wordnet
  5. 5
    serving as or forming a base wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    not adhering to ethical or moral principles wordnet
  2. 7
    (used of metals) consisting of or alloyed with inferior metal wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname transferred from the nickname.
Noun
  1. 1
    Something from which other things extend; a foundation. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    The game of prisoners' bars. US, historical, uncountable

    "to run the country base"

  3. 3
    Alternative form of BASE. alt-of, alternative
  4. 4
    Acronym of building, antenna-tower, span, earth. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
  5. 5
    a support or foundation wordnet
Show 54 more definitions
  1. 6
    Something from which other things extend; a foundation.; A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object. countable, uncountable

    "Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house."

  2. 7
    a place that the runner must touch before scoring wordnet
  3. 8
    The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis. countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    (electronics) the part of a transistor that separates the emitter from the collector wordnet
  5. 10
    A site, structure, or both, usually durable and often permanent, for housing military personnel and materiel. countable, uncountable
  6. 11
    installation from which a military force initiates operations wordnet
  7. 12
    The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters. countable, uncountable
  8. 13
    a flat bottom on which something is intended to sit wordnet
  9. 14
    A basic but essential component or ingredient. countable, uncountable
  10. 15
    the principal ingredient of a mixture wordnet
  11. 16
    A substance used as a mordant in dyeing. countable, uncountable
  12. 17
    lowest support of a structure wordnet
  13. 18
    Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform. countable, uncountable
  14. 19
    the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area wordnet
  15. 20
    Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds that turn red litmus blue and react with acids to form salts. countable, uncountable
  16. 21
    the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained wordnet
  17. 22
    Important areas in games and sports.; A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek. countable, uncountable
  18. 23
    (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed wordnet
  19. 24
    Important areas in games and sports.; One of the four places that a runner can stand without being subject to being tagged out when the ball is in play. countable, uncountable
  20. 25
    a lower limit wordnet
  21. 26
    The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement. countable, uncountable
  22. 27
    the place where you are stationed and from which missions start and end wordnet
  23. 28
    A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer. countable, uncountable
  24. 29
    (anatomy) the part of an organ nearest its point of attachment wordnet
  25. 30
    The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support. countable, uncountable
  26. 31
    the bottom or lowest part wordnet
  27. 32
    The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT). countable, uncountable
  28. 33
    (numeration system) the positive integer that is equivalent to one in the next higher counting place wordnet
  29. 34
    The lowest side of a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat. countable, uncountable
  30. 35
    the most important or necessary part of something wordnet
  31. 36
    The lowest third of a shield (or field), or an ordinary occupying this space, the champagne. (Compare terrace.) countable, uncountable

    "The shield was silver, charged with a red cross voided (that is, with the centre cut out and only the edges left), between in chief (that is, above the horizontal limb of the cross) two black dragon's wings, and in base two red daggers, and in the centre of the cross a black winged helmet; on a red chief (a broad band across the top of the shield), a silver pale (a broad vertical band), and thereon eight black arrows crossed X-wise, four and four, and encircled with a black band, between on the dexter three bendlets (narrow bands slanting from dexter chief to sinister base) enhanced (that is, raised above the centre), and on the sinister a fleur-de-lis, all of gold."

  32. 37
    the bottom side of a geometric figure from which the altitude can be constructed wordnet
  33. 38
    A number raised to the power of an exponent. countable, uncountable

    "The logarithm to base 2 of 8 is 3."

  34. 39
    any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water wordnet
  35. 40
    Synonym of radix. countable, uncountable
  36. 41
    a phosphoric ester of a nucleoside; the basic structural unit of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) wordnet
  37. 42
    The set of sets from which a topology is generated. countable, uncountable
  38. 43
    A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles. countable, uncountable
  39. 44
    A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element. countable, uncountable
  40. 45
    In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground. countable, uncountable
  41. 46
    A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached. countable, uncountable
  42. 47
    Dated form of bass. alt-of, countable, dated, uncountable

    "The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar."

  43. 48
    The smallest kind of cannon. countable, historical, uncountable
  44. 49
    The housing of a horse. archaic, countable, uncountable
  45. 50
    A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower. countable, historical, in-plural, sometimes, uncountable

    "[…] with flowers of gold, the body lined with velvet, and the bases, or skirts, with satin; also a frock of black satin, lined with sarcenet, having three welts of the same."

  46. 51
    A kind of armour skirt, of mail or plate, imitating the preceding civilian skirt. countable, historical, in-plural, sometimes, uncountable

    "The base (skirt), as opposed to the practical skirt of the tonlet armour, is an affectation in imitation of the civilian fabric garment of the period and may well have been inspired by a similar feature on Maximilian's gift armour."

  47. 52
    The lower part of a robe or petticoat. countable, obsolete, uncountable
  48. 53
    An apron. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "bakers in their linen bases"

  49. 54
    A line in a survey which, being accurately determined in length and position, serves as the origin from which to compute the distances and positions of any points or objects connected with it by a system of triangles. countable, uncountable

    "Use the globe he inhabits as a base wherewith to measure the magnitude and distance of the sun and planets."

  50. 55
    A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office. countable, uncountable
  51. 56
    The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life. Marxism, countable, uncountable
  52. 57
    A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder. countable, uncountable
  53. 58
    Ellipsis of base leg. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
  54. 59
    freebase cocaine slang, uncountable

    "TYLER LENNON (played by Louis Healy): Ten grand a week we were clearing: base, white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high."

Verb
  1. 1
    To give as its foundation or starting point; to lay the foundation of. transitive

    "Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants."

  2. 2
    use as a basis for; found on wordnet
  3. 3
    To be located (at a particular place). transitive

    "Take a look at that. This is where we are going to be basing this season."

  4. 4
    use (purified cocaine) by burning it and inhaling the fumes wordnet
  5. 5
    To act as a base; to be the person supporting the flyer.

    "Apart from time taken out during radio- and chemotherapy, Maurs continued to participate in POW. She would base a flyer in a double balance and make the audience laugh with her clowning antics for two more shows."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    situate as a center of operations wordnet
  2. 7
    To freebase. slang

    "You know he started to base at a hell of a pace / And now it's a disgrace, he's got the pipe in his face"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.

Etymology 2

From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.

Etymology 3

From Middle English base, bas, from Old French bas, from Late Latin bassus (“low”). Cognate with Spanish bajo, Italian basso and base.

Etymology 4

Probably a specific use of Etymology 1, above; perhaps also a development of the plural of bar.

Etymology 5

Variant forms.

Etymology 6

From base (“short”).

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