BASE

I. noun (plural ~s) see: come Date: 13th century 1. a. the lower part of a wall, pier, or column considered as a separate architectural feature, the lower part of a complete architectural design, the bottom of something considered as its support ; foundation , c. a side or face of a geometrical figure from which an altitude can be constructed, the length of a ~, that part of a bodily organ by which it is attached to another more central structure of the organism, 2. a main ingredient , a supporting or carrying ingredient (as of a medicine), 3. the fundamental part of something ; groundwork , basis , the economic factors on which in Marxist theory all legal, social, and political relations are formed, the lower part of a heraldic field, 5. the starting point or line for an action or undertaking, a ~line in surveying, a center or area of operations: as, the place from which a military force draws supplies, a place where military operations begin, a permanent military installation, d. a number (as 5 in 5 6.44 or 5 7 ) that is raised to a power, a number equal to the number of units in a given digit's place that for a given system of writing numbers is required to give the numeral 1 in the next higher place , a number that is multiplied by a rate or of which a percentage or fraction is calculated , root 6, 6. the starting place or goal in various games, any one of the four stations at the corners of a ~ball infield, a point to be considered , 7. any of various typically water-soluble and bitter tasting compounds that in solution have a pH greater than 7, are capable of reacting with an acid to form a salt, and are molecules or ions able to take up a proton from an acid or able to give up an unshared pair of electrons to an acid, any of the five purine or pyrimidine ~s of DNA and RNA that include cytosine, guanine, adenine, thymine, and uracil, a price level at which a security previously declining in price resists further decline, the part of a transformational grammar that consists of rules and a lexicon and generates the deep structures of a language, ~d adjective ~less adjective II. transitive verb (~d; basing) Date: 1587 to make, form, or serve as a ~ for, to find a ~ or basis for, III. adjective Etymology: Middle English bas, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin bassus fat, short, low Date: 14th century of little height, low in place or position, bass , ~born , 5. resembling a villein ; servile , held by villenage , 6. being of comparatively low value and having relatively inferior properties (as lack of resistance to corrosion) , containing a larger than usual proportion of ~ metals , 7. lacking or indicating the lack of higher qualities of mind or spirit ; ignoble , lacking higher values ; degrading , ~ly adverb ~ness noun Synonyms: see: ~