Handbasket

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A basket with a handle.

    "I have always wondered how the world, which is very large, can fit into something as small as a handbasket. To deepen my confusion, I’m not even sure I know what a handbasket is. Aren’t all baskets in fact handbaskets, and if they are, isn’t the prefix hand wholly unnecessary? We should probably say: “The world is going to hell in a basket,” although that sounds even worse, doesn’t it?"

  2. 2
    a container that is usually woven and has handles wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
basketbasket

Example

More examples

"Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?"

Etymology

From hand + basket.

Related phrases

to heck in a handbasketto hell in a handbasket

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.