baseborn

adjective

base·​born ˈbās-ˈbȯrn 

1

a

dated : of humble birth

Social expectations collide with wartime reality in a tender, well-written story that brings a loyal, baseborn officer and a gently bred heroine together in a satisfying romance …

—Kristin Ramsdell

b

dated : born to parents who are not married to each other

The court's records of "baseborn" babies … today can provide genealogists and historians proof of paternity of an ancestor born outside of marriage.

—Helen Arthur

Sam Huse was granted his request to the court for 1,500 pounds of tobacco for raising the baseborn child of his servant, Sarah Harris, who refused to name the father.

—Jack Owens

2

dated : deficient in character or status : ignoble

The scenes captured by Malak Karsh would help transform the city's image from a baseborn lumber town to a flowering capital, and establish Ottawa as a premier Canadian tourist destination.

—Andrew Duffy

Their false pride died and they [a group of hyenas] knew themselves for the baseborn scavengers they are, and panic hit them all at once like a sandstorm in the desert, and they fled shrieking.

—Edison Marshall

Synonyms

• common
• humble
• ignoble
• inferior
• low
• low-life
• lowborn
• lower-class
• lowly
• lumpen
• mean
• plebeian
• prole
• proletarian
• unwashed
• vulgar

Examples of baseborn in a Sentence

in the Middle Ages, a baseborn person simply had to accept his or her station in life

a baseborn child who rose to prominence in 9th-century London society

Word History

First Known Use

1553, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

baseborn

adjective

base·​born -ˈbȯrn 

1

: born into a poor family : lowly

2

: of illegitimate birth : bastard