bascule bridge

A bridge balanced by a counterpoise, which rises or falls as the bridge is lowered or raised. base (1), * bāçe, * baas, a. & s. [Fr. bas; Sp. baro ; Port, baizo ; Ital. ba o = low; Low Lat. ba us = thick, fat, short, humble.] A. As adjective : I. Ordinary Language: *1. Literally : Low in place. (Applied to the position of one thing with respect to another.) "Hir nose baas , her browes hie." Gower: Conf. Amant., bk. 1. ( Richardson .) 2. Figuratively: (1) Of individuals : (a) Occupying a humble position in society, being as it were at or near the base of the social pyramid. "If the lords and chief men degenerate, what shall be hoped of the peasants and baser people?"-Spenser: Ireland . (b) Illegitimate in birth, bastard. "Why bastard? wherefore base When my dimensions are so well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's i ue." Shakesp.: Lear, 1. 9. (c) With the slender influence or with the moral qualities often seen in those who, being at the base of the social pyramid or of ille gitimate birth, are looked down upon by the proud and the unthinking. Mean, undignified, without independence of feeling. "It could not else be, I should prove so base To sue and be denied such common grace." Shakesp.: Timon, iil &. Cowper: Friendship. "Unworthy, base , and insincere." (2) Of communities : Politically low, without power. "And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations."- Ezek . xxix. 14, 15. (3) Of things: Mean, vile, worthle . Spec.: (a) Of metals: Of little value. (Often used of the le precious metals in coins or alloys. In the case of gold and silver coins or alloys, all other metals combined with them are regarded as base, and a coin in which these other metals are in undue quantity is said to be debased .) "A guinea is pure gold if it has nothing but gold in it, without any alloy or baser metal."-Watts. "He was robbed indirectly by a new i ue of counters, smaller in size and baser in material than any which had yet borne the image and superscription of James."- Macaulay : Hist . Eng ., ch. xv. (b) Of any other material thing , whether occurring in nature or made by art: Inferior in quality, of little value. "The harvest white plumb is a base plumb, and the white date plum are no very good plumbs."- Bacon . "Pyreicus was only famous for counterfeiting all base things, as earthen pitchers, a scullery."- Peacham . (c) Of deportment: Suitable to a humble position. [BASE-HUMILITY.] (d) Of moral conduct: Such as to involve moral degradation. "He had indeed atoned for many crimes by one crime baser than all the rest." - Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xx. IMG:content-1088.png:[graphic] IMG:content-1089.jpg:[graphic] II. Law: 1. Suitable to be performed by persons of low rank. [BASE-SERVICES.] 2. Holding anything conditionally. Specially used of one holding land on some condition, not absolutely. [BASE-TENANT.] ( Black stone: Comment., ii. 9.) (1) English Law : (a) Base services: Under the feudal system base services were such as were fit only for peasants or persons of servile rank to perform, as to plough the lord's land, to make his hedges, . (Black stone: Comment ., ii. 5.) (b) A base tenant is one holding land which he will lose if a certain contingent event occur. (Black stone: Comment., bk. ii., ch. 9.) Base tenure is the tenure by which land in such circumstances is held. A base fee, called also a qualified fee , is one with a qualification attached to it, and which must be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. If a grant be made to a person and his heirs so long as he or his family occupies a certain farm, this is a base tenure, for the grant ceases if the farm be no longer occupied by the grantee or his heirs. ( Black stone ! Comment., bk. ii., ch. 9.) (2) Scots Law. Base rights are those which are po e ed by a person who has had feudal property disponed to him by one who arranges that it shall be held under himself and not ander his superior. B. As substantive: That which is physically, socially, morally, or otherwise base; specially, that which is morally so. "... Why brand they us With base ! with basene ? bastardy? base, base" Shakesp. Lear , i 2. Plural: Persons low or despised. Crabb thus distinguishes the terms base , vile, and mean: "Base is a stronger term than vile , and vile than mean. Base marks a high degree of moral turpitude: vile and mean denote in different degrees the want of all value or esteem. What is base excites our abhorrence; what is vile provokes disgust; what is mean awakens contempt. Base is opposed to magnanimous; vile to noble; mean to generous. Ingratitude is base ; it does violence to the best affections of our nature: flattery is vile ; it violates truth in the gro est manner for the lowest purposes of gain; compliances are mean which are derogatory to the rank or dignity of the individual.