Definition of "base"

base¹

/beɪs/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural bases
1. Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
  1. A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object.
    Quotations
    Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.
    1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess‎
2. The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.
3. A permanent structure for housing military personnel and material.
4. The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.
5. (cooking, painting, pharmacy) A basic but essential component or ingredient.
6. A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.
7. (cosmetics) Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.
8. (chemistry) Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds, having bitter taste, that turn red litmus blue, and react with acids to form salts.
9. Important areas in games and sports.
  1. A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek.
  2. (baseball) One of the four places that a runner can stand without being subject to being tagged out when the ball is in play.
10. (architecture) The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.
11. (biology, biochemistry) A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.
12. (botany) The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.
13. (electronics) The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).
14. (geometry) The lowest side of a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.
15. (heraldry) The lowest third of a shield (or field), or an ordinary occupying this space, the champagne. (Compare terrace..)
16. (mathematics) A number raised to the power of an exponent.
17. (mathematics) Synonym of radix.
18. (topology) The set of sets from which a topology is generated.
19. (topology) A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.
20. (group theory) A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element.
21. (acrobatics, cheerleading) In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground.
22. (linguistics) A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.
23. (music) Dated form of bass.
  Quotations
  The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar.
  1709, J[ohn] Dryden, J[ohn] Oldham, “(please specify the page)”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […]
24. (military, historical) The smallest kind of cannon.
25. (archaic) The housing of a horse.
26. (historical, sometimes in the plural) A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade, but sometimes of mail or other armour) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.
  Quotations
  The base (skirt), as opposed to the practical skirt of the tonlet armour, is an affectation in imitation of the civilian fabric garment of the period and may well have been inspired by a similar feature on Maximilian's gift armour.
  1977, Armours of Henry VIII
  Both knee-length bases are made from black velvet [...] There was a second type of metal skirt that could be worn with armour: the tonlet. [...] Unlike the base, however, the tonlet did not have a textile counterpart. [...]
  2007, AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. Conference, Textiles and Text: Re-establishing the Links Between Archival and Object-based Research : Postprints, pages 47–49
27. (obsolete) The lower part of a robe or petticoat.
28. (obsolete) An apron.
  Quotations
  bakers in their linen bases
  1613, John Marston, The Insatiate Countess
29. A line in a survey which, being accurately determined in length and position, serves as the origin from which to compute the distances and positions of any points or objects connected with it by a system of triangles.
  Quotations
  Use the globe he inhabits as a base wherewith to measure the magnitude and distance of the sun and planets.
  1834, Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
30. (politics) A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office.
31. (Marxism) The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life.
32. A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder.
33. (aviation) Short for base leg.
34. (slang, uncountable) freebase cocaine
  Quotations
  TYLER LENNON(played by Louis Healy): Ten grand a week we were clearing: base, white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high.
  2019 January 20, Ann Cleeves, Paul Matthew Thompson, 1:26:51 from the start, in Lawrence Gough, director, Vera(Cuckoo) (9), episode 2 (TV series), spoken by Tyler Lennon (Louis Healy)
verb
third-person singular simple present bases, present participle basing, simple past and past participle based
1. (transitive) To give as its foundation or starting point; to lay the foundation of.
  Quotations
  Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
  1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page vii
2. (transitive) To be located (at a particular place).
3. (acrobatics, cheerleading) To act as a base; to be the person supporting the flyer.
  Quotations
  Apart from time taken out during radio- and chemotherapy, Maurs continued to participate in POW. She would base a flyer in a double balance and make the audience laugh with her clowning antics for two more shows.
  2005, John T. Warren, Laura B. Lengel, Casting Gender: Women and Performance in Intercultural Context, page 73
4. (slang) To freebase.
  Quotations
  You know he started to base at a hell of a pace / And now it's a disgrace, he's got the pipe in his face
  1984, “8 Million Stories”, in Ego Trip, performed by Kurtis Blow ft. Run-DMC

base²

/beɪs/

adjective
comparative baser or more base, superlative basest or most base
1. (obsolete) Low in height; short.
  Quotations
  The cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot.
  1594, William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece, line 664
2. Low in place or position.
  Quotations
  I see thy glory like a shooting star / Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
  c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 2, scene 4, lines 19–20
3. (obsolete) Of low value or degree.
  Quotations
  If thou livest in paine and sorrow, thy base courage is the cause of it, To die there wanteth but will.
  1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]
4. (archaic) Of low social standing or rank; vulgar, common.
  Quotations
  UUhat meanes the mightie Turkiſh EmperorTo talke with one ſo baſe as Tamburlaine?
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene iii
  Wherefore should I / Stand in the plague of custome, and permit / The curiosity of Nations, to deprive me? For that I am some twelve, or fourteen Moonshines / Lag of a Brother? Why Bastard? Wherefore base? / When my Dimensions are as well compact, My minde as generous, and my shape as true / As honest madams issue? Why brand they us / With Base? With basenes Bastardie? Base, Base?
  c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], page 285, column 2
  a peasant and base swain
  1623, Francis Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum
5. Morally reprehensible, immoral; cowardly.
  Quotations
  a cruel act of a base and a cowardish mind
  1551, Ralph Robynson, transl., More's Utopia
  base ingratitude
  1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903,
  “Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […]”
  1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace‎
6. (now rare) Inferior; unworthy, of poor quality.
  Quotations
  'Like this horrible film.''Horrible?' Lenina was genuinely astonished. 'But I thought it was lovely.''It was base,' he said indignantly, 'it was ignoble.'
  1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World‎, London: Chatto & Windus
7. (of a metal) Not considered precious or noble.
8. Alloyed with inferior metal; debased.
9. (obsolete) Of illegitimate birth; bastard.
  Quotations
  Why bastard? Wherefore base?
  c. 1605–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 1, scene 2, line 6
10. Not classical or correct.
  Quotations
  base LatinThe spelling has been modernized.
  1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837
11. Obsolete form of bass.
12. (law) Not held by honourable service.

base³

/beɪs/

noun
uncountable
1. (now chiefly US, historical) The game of prisoners' bars.
  Quotations
  to run the country base
  1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii]
  So ran they all, as they had bene at bace, / They being chased that did others chase.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

base⁴

/beɪs/

noun
1. Alternative form of BASE

Definition of "base"

base1

noun

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verb

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base2

adjective

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base3

noun

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base4

noun

base¹

base²

base³

base⁴