Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The substructure or foundation of a building.
- noun The lowest habitable story of a building, usually below ground level.
- noun A complex of undifferentiated igneous and metamorphic rocks underlying sedimentary strata.
- noun Slang The last place or lowest level, as in competitive standings.
- noun Chiefly New England A public toilet, especially one in a school.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The lower or fundamental portion; a base.
- noun In architecture: The portion of the elevation of a structure which performs the function in the design of constituting a support to those portions which come above it; especially, the substructure of a columnar or arched construction, but also the lowest member in the design of a wall, etc. Compare
base , 3. - noun A floor or story which is wholly or in part beneath the surface of the ground, but is usually, as distinguished from a cellar, well lighted, and fitted up and used for household or other usual purposes.
- noun The act of basing, or the state of being based.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Arch.) The outer wall of the ground story of a building, or of a part of that story, when treated as a distinct substructure. (See
base , n., 3 (a).) Hence: The rooms of a ground floor, collectively. - noun (Anat.) a delicate membrane composed of a single layer of flat cells, forming the substratum upon which, in many organs, the epithelioid cells are disposed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
floor of a building below ground level. - noun sports, informal Last place in a sports conference standings.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level; often used for storage
- noun the ground floor facade or interior in Renaissance architecture
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
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Examples
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Slamming my head repeatedly against the steel support post in the basement is the only certain solution, but I might wake up a Republican congressman. hc carey says:
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The flood in the basement is a less uplifting indicator that a major thaw is underway.
Archive 2008-03-01 The Nag 2008
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It was amongst the jars my mother-in-love gave me many years ago from her fruit room that's what she called her basement canning storage room.
Jars & bottles & memories... Gumbo Lily 2010
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The scene in the basement is a flower-power nightmare version of the daytime variety shows on Japanese television.
Let’s Die Together 2007
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The scene in the basement is a flower-power nightmare version of the daytime variety shows on Japanese television.
Let’s Die Together 2007
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He then started talking about the Country Music Hall of Fame and how he wished he could go into what he called the basement to see where they keep "the good stuff."
Newscoma newscoma 2010
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The next day, do the same with what I call basement letters.
unknown title 2009
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The basement is close, but the path, as always, is blocked.
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Anything older would be ‘bargain basement’, deserving (at best) $0.99 apiece.
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Instead of getting all vexed, Scooby and Shaggy-style, they should have thanked his blonde temp ... tress (Ali Larter doing a bargain basement impression of Sharon Stone at her most bargain basement) for adding some excitement to their lives.
fourfour: 2009
chained_bear commented on the word basement
In castles (and I guess elsewhere too), a secure storage space.
August 24, 2008