BASIN

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French bacin, from Late Latin bacchinon Date: 13th century 1. an open usually circular vessel with sloping or curving sides used typically for holding water for washing, a bowl used especially in cooking, the quantity contained in a ~, 2. a dock built in a tidal river or harbor, an enclosed or partly enclosed water area, 3. a large or small depression in the surface of the land or in the ocean floor, the entire tract of country drained by a river and its tributaries, a great depression in the surface of the lithosphere occupied by an ocean, a broad area of the earth beneath which the strata dip usually from the sides toward the center, ~al adjective ~ed adjective ~ful noun