English English Dictionary

The number from which a mathematical table is constructed; as, the base of a system of logarithms.

A low, or deep, sound. (Mus.) (a) The lowest part; the deepest male voice. (b) One who sings, or the instrument which plays, base.

The bottom of anything, considered as its support, or that on which something rests for support; the foundation; as, the base of a statue.

Fig.: The fundamental or essential part of a thing; the essential principle; a groundwork.

The lower part of a complete architectural design, as of a monument; also, the lower part of any elaborate piece of furniture or decoration.

That extremity of a leaf, fruit, etc., at which it is attached to its support.

The chief ingredient in a compound.

A substance used as a mordant.

The exterior side of the polygon, or that imaginary line which connects the salient angles of two adjacent bastions.

The line or surface constituting that part of a figure on which it is supposed to stand.

The positive, or non-acid component of a salt; a substance which, combined with an acid, neutralizes the latter and forms a salt; -- applied also to the hydroxides of the positive elements or radicals, and to certain organic bodies resembling them in their property of forming salts with acids.

See Bass viol.

A furnace or stove in which the fuel is contained in a hopper or chamber, and is fed to the fire as the lower stratum is consumed.

An inferior court of law, not of record.

The secondary, inferior, or rear courtyard of a large house; the outer court of a castle.

The ball used in this game.

A game of ball, so called from the bases or bounds ( four in number) which designate the circuit which each player must endeavor to make after striking the ball.

A board, or other woodwork, carried round the walls of a room and touching the floor, to form a base and protect the plastering; -- also called washboard (in England), mopboard, and scrubboard.

Born of low parentage.

Vile; mean.