Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An aromatic annual herb (Ocimum basilicum) in the mint family, native to Asia and Africa and widely cultivated for its leaves.
  • noun The leaves of this plant used as a seasoning.
  • noun Any of various plants in the genus Ocimum, native to warm regions, having aromatic foliage and terminal clusters of small, usually white flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name of several labiate plants, especially of the genus Ocymum.
  • noun A corruption of bezel.
  • noun A corruption of basan.
  • noun A large cannon throwing a heavy shot. See basilisk, 4.
  • noun An iron or fetter fastened round the ankle of a prisoner.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The slope or angle to which the cutting edge of a tool, as a plane, is ground.
  • noun The skin of a sheep tanned with bark.
  • transitive verb To grind or form the edge of to an angle.
  • noun (Bot.) The name given to several aromatic herbs of the Mint family, but chiefly to the common or sweet basil (Ocymum basilicum), and the bush basil, or lesser basil (Ocymum minimum), the leaves of which are used in cookery. The name is also given to several kinds of mountain mint (Pycnanthemum).
  • noun a name given to the fragrant herbs Calamintha Acinos and Calamintha Nepeta.
  • noun a plant (Calamintha clinopodium) of the Mint family.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A plant (Ocimum basilicum).
  • noun The leaves of this plant used as a herb.
  • noun The angle to which a joiner's tool is ground away.
  • verb transitive To grind the edge of a tool to an acute angle.
  • noun The skin of a sheep tanned with bark.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Roman Catholic Church) the bishop of Caesarea who defended the Roman Catholic Church against the heresies of the 4th century; a saint and Doctor of the Church (329-379)
  • noun any of several Old World tropical aromatic annual or perennial herbs of the genus Ocimum
  • noun leaves of the common basil; used fresh or dried

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French basile, from Medieval Latin basilicum, from Greek basilikon, from neuter of basilikos, royal; see basilica.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French basile, from Medieval Latin basilicum, from Ancient Greek βασιλικόν (basilikon, "royal"), from βασιλεύς (basileus, "king").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of bezel?

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Corrupted from English basan, French basane, Late Latin basanium, from Arabic, properly "lining".

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Examples

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  • Also tanned leather of a sheep

    July 1, 2009