▪ I. bast, n.1
(bɑːst, -æ-)
Also 6–7 baste.
[Common Teut.: OE. bæst is cogn. with MHG., mod.G., MDu., Du. bast (masc.), Goth. *bastus not found, also ON., Da., Sw. bast (neuter), all in same sense. Ulterior deriv. unknown: not related to bind (Kluge). See also the corrupted form bass n.2]
1. a. The inner bark of the lime or linden, which, cut into strips and coarsely plaited, is sold as ‘Russia matting’; also applied generally to flexible fibrous barks, and other similar materials (cf. bass n.2), and in Physiological Botany to all fibres of the same cellular structure.
| a 800 Corpus Gl. (Sweet O.E.T. 101), Tilio, baest. [c 1000 ælfric Judg. xiii. 15 Hiᵹ ða hine ᵹebundon mid twám bæstenum rápum.] c 1400 Destr. Troy xi. 4773 Till all was bare as a bast. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §136 Bastes or pyllynge of wythy or elme. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 178 Ropes of bast. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 213 Baste or the bark of twigs, spartum. 1872 Q. Rev. CXXXII. 221 They make paper of the fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood and the bark. 1881 Blackmore Christowell iii, With..a trail of bast around her neck. |
b. attrib., as in bast-broom (cf. bass n.2 1 c), bast-cell, bast-fibre, bast-mat, bast-tree.
| c 1425 in Wülcker Voc. /647, Tilia, baste-tre. 1577 Harrison Descr. Brit. iii, They bind the planks togither verie artificiallie with bast ropes. 1660 Act 12 Chas. II, iv. Sched., Bast or straw-hats knotted. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) III. v. vi. 201 They skewer a bast mat round their shoulders. 1867 Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 6) I. 282 Bass or Bast... The name is also used for the bark or tough fibres of the flax and hemp plants of which Bast brooms are made. 1877 Design & Work 11 Aug. 235/2, I have been making some bast brooms. 1880 Gray Bot. Text-bk. 398 Bast-cells..give to the kinds of inner bark that largely contain them their strength and toughness. |
2. A rope, mat, etc. made of bast; cf. bass n.2
| ? c 1450 MS. Lincoln A i. 17 f. 127 (Halliw.) Ȝe salle take a stalworthe baste, And bynde my handes byhynd me faste. |
▪ II. † bast, n.2 and a. Obs.
Also 5 baste, baaste.
[a. OF. bast (mod. bât = Pr. bast, med.L. bastum) pack-saddle (used as a bed by muleteers in the inns), in phr. fils (homme, etc.) de bast, lit. ‘pack-saddle child,’ as opposed to a child of the marriage-bed; thus forming a tersely allusive epithet for illegitimate offspring; cf. bastard, bantling.]
A. n. Bastardy. (In phr.: on bast, in bast, a bast, o bast, of bast.)
| 1297 R. Glouc. 516 Gentil man was inou, thei he were a bast ibore. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 7643, Bast Ywain he was y-hote, For he was bigeten o bast. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas iii. xxvi. (1554) 97 b, Hys brethren in bast an hundred and fiftene. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 26 Baaste, not wedlocke, bastardia. 1494 Fabyan vi. ccii. 212 Arnolde, Sone of bast of Lothayr. |
B. adj. [the n. used attrib.: bast son = son of bast, fils de bast.] Bastard, illegitimate.
| c 1330 [see prec.] 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. VII. 27 Þe erle his bast sone. 1494 Fabyan vii. ccxix. 240 Willyam duke of Normandye.. bast sone of Robert. 1572 Scholehouse Wom. 324 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 117 The childe I warrant shalbe bast. |
▪ III. † bast, n.3 Obs.
Erroneous form of bass n.1, a kind of fish [due to use of bass for bast in other words.]
| 1709 T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmld., The fish bred in Bassenthwait water are basts. 1759 MS. at Urswick, Perch or basts brought from Dalton Tarn. |
▪ IV. bast, n.4
[Persian.]
Sanctuary, refuge, asylum. So ˈbasti, a refugee.
| 1856 M. L. Sheil Glimpses Life & Manners in Persia x. 165 An extraordinary device adopted by the moollas..for restoring the right of bast, or sanctuary, to its ancient vigour. 1894 G. Bell Safar Nameh Persian Pict. 32 Across the gateways a chain is drawn, denoting that the garden is Bast—sanctuary—and into these the European may not go. 1923 Blackw. Mag. Jan. 49/1 In Persia the system of ‘bast’, or asylum, was the only means whereby the oppressed could do something to right..his grievances. Ibid. 49/2 The refusal of bast to any one with a legitimate grievance would be an affront to public opinion. Ibid. 56/1 The Bastis had not come to the Consulate by my invitation. |
▪ V. bast
obs. form of boast.