Base

BASE, noun

[Latin basis; that which is set, the foundation or bottom.]

1. The bottom of any thing, considered as its support or the part of a thing on which it stands or rests; as the base of a column, the pedestal of a statue, the foundation of a house, etc.
2. In fortification, the exterior side of the polygon, or that imaginary line which is drawn from the flanked angle of a bastion to the angle opposite to it.
3. In gunnery, the least sort of ordnance, the diameter of whose bore is l 1/4 inch.
4. The part of any ornament which hangs down, as housings.
5. The broad part of any thing, as the bottom of a cone.
6. In old authors, stockings; armor for the legs.
7. The place from which racers or tilters start; the bottom of the field; the carcer or starting post.
8. The lowest or gravest part in music; improperly written bass.
9. A rustic play, called also bays, or prison bars.
10. In geometry, the lowest side of the perimeter of a figure.
11. In chimistry, any body which is dissolved by another body, which it receives and fixes.
12. Thorough base in music, is the part performed with base viols or theorbos, while the voices sing and other instruments perform their parts, or during the intervals when the other parts stop.

BASE, verb transitive

To embase; to reduce the value by the admixture of meaner metals. [Little used.]

2. To found; to lay the base or foundation.