BAS'SET, noun A game at cards, said to have been invented at Venice, by a nobleman, who was banished for the invention. The game being introduced into France by the Venetian embassador, Justiniani, in 1674, it was prohibited by severe edicts. BAS'SET, verb intransitive [See Basil.] Among coal diggers, to incline upwards. Thus a vein of coal bassets, when it takes a direction towards the surface of the earth. This is called cropping, and is opposed to dipping.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI