Other forms: basking, basks, basked
To bask is to lie comfortably in warmth or in praise. Bask in the sun, basking sharks, bask in the glory.
The warmth sense is literal and lazy — reptiles bask to raise their body temperature, which they cannot do internally, so basking is work for them rather than pleasure. The basking shark is named for feeding near the surface as though sunbathing. Figuratively, to bask in something means enjoying it at length. Note that bask and bathe are the same Old Norse word.
1verbbaskTo lie comfortably in warmth.
“The cat basked in the warm sunshine on the windowsill.”
2verbenjoyTo enjoy praise or success at length.
“After the award, she basked in the praise of her colleagues.”
bask is a lying in warmth.
Middle English basken comes from Old Norse bathask, to bathe oneself. Bathe is the same word, and basking was originally bathing — in warmth rather than water.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeh₁-
Proto-Germanic
*baþōną
Old Norse
baðask — to take a bath
Middle English
basken
English, today
bask
Built from
Middle English basken, from Old Norse baðask (“to take a bath”) literally “to bathe oneself”, mediopassive form from underlying baða (“to bathe”) + sik (“oneself”), from Proto-Germanic baþōną and sek. Doublet of English bathe.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA