Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BASK'ET, n. [W. basged, or basgawd; Ir. bascaid; probably from weaving or texture; W. basg, a netting or plaiting of splinters.]

1. A domestic vessel made of twigs, rushes, splinters or other flexible things interwoven. The forms and sizes of baskets are very various, as well as the uses to which they are applied; as corn-baskets, clothes-baskets, fruit-baskets, and work-baskets.
2. The contents of a basket; as much as a basket will contain; as, a basket of medlars is two bushels. But in general, this quantity is indefinite. In military affairs, baskets of earth sometimes are used on the parapet of a trench, between which the soldiers fire. They serve for defence against small shot. – Encyc.