Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various North American freshwater fishes of the family Centrarchidae, especially the largemouth bass and the smallmouth bass.
- noun Any of various marine fishes especially of the families Serranidae and Moronidae, and including the sea basses and the striped bass.
- noun A low-pitched sound or tone.
- noun The tones in the lowest register of an instrument.
- noun A male singing voice of the lowest range.
- noun A singer who has such a voice.
- noun An instrument that sounds within this range.
- noun A vocal or instrumental part written within this range.
- noun An instrument, especially a double bass, that produces tones in a low register.
- adjective Having a deep tone.
- adjective Low in pitch.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In music, low; deep; grave.
- noun In music, the lowest part in the harmony of a musical composition, whether vocal or instrumental.
- noun A male voice of the lowest or gravest kind, having a compass of about two octaves from the second F below middle C, or lower.
- noun A singer having such a voice.
- noun A musical instrument of any class having a deep, grave tone, excelled in gravity only by the contrabass.
- noun Same as
bass clef (which see, underclef ). - To sing or play the bass part of; accompany with the bass.
- To sound in a deep tone.
- To take the bass part in a concerted piece of music: as, he basses very steadily.
- noun Originally, the perch, but now restricted to fishes more or less like the true perch.
- noun In coal-mining, black carbonaceous shale.
- To kiss.
- noun A kiss; a buss.
- noun The commercial name of a fiber, resembling horsehair or wire, obtained from the sheathing leaf-bases or the leaf-stalks of certain palms. It is dark brown or black in color, and is used for brooms, brushes, ropes, and cables. Also called
piassava . See bast-palm, piassava, andbassine . - noun Same as
bast . - noun The American linden or lime-tree, Tilia Americana. See
basswood . - noun A mat made of bass or bast; a bass-mat; hence, any thick mat or matting; formerly, a straw hassock or cushion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) An edible, spiny-finned fish, esp. of the genera Roccus, Labrax, and related genera. There are many species.
- noun The two American fresh-water species of black bass (genus Micropterus). See
Black bass . - noun Species of Serranus, the sea bass and rock bass. See
Sea bass . - noun The southern, red, or channel bass (
Sciæna ocellata ). SeeRedfish . - transitive verb rare To sound in a deep tone.
- noun A bass, or deep, sound or tone.
- noun The lowest part in a musical composition.
- noun One who sings, or the instrument which plays, bass.
- noun See
Thorough bass . - adjective Deep or grave in tone.
- adjective (Mus.) the character placed at the beginning of the staff containing the bass part of a musical composition.
- adjective a deep-sounding voice; a voice fitted for singing bass.
- noun (Bot.) The linden or lime tree, sometimes wrongly called
whitewood ; also, its bark, which is used for making mats. Seebast . - noun A hassock or thick mat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
perch ; any of various marine and freshwater fish resembling the perch, all within the order ofPerciformes . - adjective Of sound, a voice or an instrument,
low inpitch orfrequency . - noun A low spectrum of
sound tones. - noun A section of musical group that produces low-pitched sound, lower than
tenor . - noun A male
singer who sings in the bass range. - noun An
instrument that plays in the bass range, in particular adouble bass ,bass guitar ,electric bass or basssynthesiser .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The tone of the _bass_ is much heavier and the instrument itself is much more clumsy to handle than the other members of the group, hence it is almost never used as a solo instrument but it is invaluable for reinforcing the bass part in orchestral music.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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After all, this bass is the instrument of his youth, one of his iconic symbols, as Mr. Carlin affirms on the way to this muddle-up of the moment: It is his Rosebud, his Excalibur.
McCartney Keeps the Biographers at Bay Carl Rollyson 2010
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The double bass is also called the bass viol, string bass, and bass fiddle.
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What usually first attracts a bass is a lure's motion, so the bass comes closer, ready to attack.
Field & Stream's John Merwin Explores the Lure Lab at Pure Fishing 2007
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"I know not what you call my bass", said Heyward, piqued at her remark, "but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than could be any orchestra of Handel's music".
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"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark,
The Last of the Mohicans A Narrative of 1757 James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark,
The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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But, of course, he might have meant "bass" as in "bass guitar."
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Love your selection of curves and that bass is very, very cool ….
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A 15-pound largemouth bass is doing all the right things to get that big.
oroboros commented on the word bass
Musical instrument; a fish.
November 22, 2007
asativum commented on the word bass
A voice, too. What a versatile word.
November 22, 2007
john commented on the word bass
Also, the makers of the Weejun:
November 22, 2007
fbharjo commented on the word bass
the fish is so named because of its spiny dorsal fin
November 24, 2008