basement
noun/ˈbeɪsmənt/
Etymology From base + -ment.
1
Architecture A floor of a building below ground level.
- Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
2
Architecture Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of semi-basement, a floor mostly below grade
- Derived terms
- antiglomerular basement membrane disease, bargain basement, bargain-basement, basement apartment, basement battler, basement-dweller, basement dweller, basement-dwelling, basemented, basementful, basementless, basementlike, basement membrane, basementward, English basement, iceberg basement, Michigan basement, nonbasement, semibasement, semi-basement, subbasement