BASIN

A hollow vessel or dish, to hold water for washing, and for various other uses.

The quantity contained in a basin.

A hollow vessel, of various forms and materials, used in the arts or manufactures, as that used by glass grinders for forming concave glasses, by hatters for molding a hat into shape, etc.

A hollow place containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a little bay.

A circular or oval valley, or depression of the surface of the ground, the lowest part of which is generally occupied by a lake, or traversed by a river.

The entire tract of country drained by a river, or sloping towards a sea or lake.

An isolated or circumscribed formation, particularly where the strata dip inward, on all sides, toward a center; -- especially applied to the coal formations, called coal basins or coal fields.