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Webster 1913 Edition

(bāsment)

Noun.

[F.

soubassement

. Of uncertain origin. Cf.

Adj.

(Arch.)

The outer wall of the ground story of a building, or of a part of that story, when treated as a distinct substructure. (See

Noun.

, 3

(a)

.) Hence: The rooms of a ground floor, collectively.

Basement membrane

(Anat.)

a delicate membrane composed of a single layer of flat cells, forming the substratum upon which, in many organs, the epithelioid cells are disposed.

Noun.

In architecture, the ground floor, on which the order or columns which decorate the principal story, are placed.