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Glite Dictionary
in-basket

in-basket

1 3.2
A tray on a desk for holding incoming papers or mail
  • noun
  • /ˈɪnˌbæskɪt/
  • US
translation icon : bandeja de entrada
  • Every morning, he checks the in-basket for new mail and documents.

Examples

  • He typed up the intended memo and put it in the in-basket on the lieutenant's tidy desk.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • He glanced at his in-basket.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Look at the things that come across the wire into my in-basket.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Virginia had dropped in his in-basket.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I have to carry it on paper and then make sure it's not still lying in somebody's in-basket a month later.

    Blog text (24)

  • Nor, to Chee's surprise, was there a fat envelope in his in-basket.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • A tan Stetson sat on his desk in-basket.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • "She set the coffee on his desk with the pumpkin bread and plopped the mail in his in-basket.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Chee took the manila envelope out of the in-basket.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • p87 Jim Chee noticed a neat stack of papers in his in-basket when he walked into his office.

    Fiction book (1993)

Synonyms

inbox
vsin-basket
2 1.8

A tray on a desk for incoming letters and papers

is the same container but shown as a single word without hyphen
in-tray
vsin-basket
  • UK
1 4.0

A tray on a desk for papers that need attention

is written differently, usually with a visible hyphen in the name

Antonyms

out-basket
  • US
3.6

A tray on a desk for holding letters and papers to send

How Full

trayful
1 4.1
in-basket
  • US
1 3.2

Surface Forms

in-basket singular
in-baskets plural

Morphology

in-basket = basket (semi-transparent) = in + basket

The parts suggest a container for things coming in, but the specific office sense of a desk tray for incoming work is somewhat specialized. [Postprocessing: moved 'in' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

The word in-basket is formed from in ('inside') and basket ('tray' or 'container'), like the familiar inbox. So, an in-basket is the tray on a desk where incoming papers or mail sit until someone deals with them.