Bast
adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made. countable, uncountable
- 2 Bastardy, illegitimacy of birth. obsolete, uncountable
- 3 (botany) tissue that conducts synthesized food substances (e.g., from leaves) to parts where needed; consists primarily of sieve tubes wordnet
- 4 Fibre made from the phloem of certain plants (particularly the lime tree) and used for making ropes, cords and matting. countable, uncountable
"[T]here would be seen his face, or that of his elder brother, peering down. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of bast slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs, and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking[…]"
- 5 strong woody fibers obtained especially from the phloem of from various plants wordnet
- 1 Illegitimate, born out of wedlock. not-comparable, obsolete
- 1 Alternative spelling of Bastet. Egyptian, alt-of, alternative
Example
More examples"If a Tatar succeeds in becoming an official, he will hang his bast shoes in the front corner of the house."
Etymology
From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (“bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast, from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“bast, rope”) (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (“bundle”) (compare Middle Irish basc (“necklace”), Latin fascis (“bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“tied, linked”)).
From Middle English bast, from a back-formation of Middle English bastard.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.