Basket definition

1. A vessel made of osiers or other twigs, cane, rushes, splints, or other flexible material, interwoven. "Rude baskets . . . Woven of the flexile willow."

2. The contents of a basket; as much as a basket contains; as, a basket of peaches.

3. The bell or vase of the Corinthian capital.

4. The two back seats facing one another on the outside of a stagecoach. Basket fish, a lepidopterous insect of the genus Thyridopteryx and allied genera, especially. T. Ephemeraeformis. The larva makes and carries about a bag or basket-like case of silk and twigs, which it afterwards hangs up to shelter the pupa and wingless adult females.

Origin: Of unknown origin. The modern Celtic words seem to be from the English.

(01 Mar 1998)