bas ‧ ket S3 /ˈbɑːskət, ˈbɑːskɪt $ ˈbæ-/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Origin: Probably from an unrecorded Old North French baskot , from Latin bascauda 'bowl for washing dishes' ]
1 . a container made of thin pieces of plastic, wire, or wood woven together, used to carry things or put things in:
a shopping basket
a basket full of vegetables
clothes/laundry basket (=for dirty clothes)
2 . a net with a hole at the bottom, attached to a metal ring, through which the ball is thrown in ↑ basketball
make/shoot a basket (=to throw the ball through the basket)
3 . technical the average or total value of a number of different goods or CURRENCIES
⇨ put all your eggs in one basket at ↑ egg 1 (6), ⇨ ↑ wastepaper basket
• • •
COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning )
■ types of basket
▪ a wastepaper/waste basket (=for paper you throw away)
He threw her letter in the wastepaper basket.
▪ a laundry/clothes basket (=for dirty clothes)
Will you please put your socks in the laundry basket?
▪ a shopping basket
She paid for the apples and put them in her shopping basket.
▪ a picnic basket
We took a picnic basket and a rug.
▪ a bread basket (=for serving bread)
There was a bread basket on the table.
▪ a fruit basket (=containing fruits)
He had a fruit basket sent up to her hotel room.
▪ a hanging basket (=for putting plants in and hanging outside)
All the shops had hanging baskets outside their doors.
▪ a wicker basket (=made from the hard stems of a plant)
She stores her vegetables in pretty wicker baskets.