Meaning of basket house | Babel Free

Definitions

A cafe or similar establishment where musical performances are given and the performers are then paid with money placed in a basket by members of the audience.

idiomatic

Examples

“Like⟳ a union is what some bearded beatniks and long-tressed girls are trying to form⟳ at Greenwich Village "Basket Houses." "Basket Houses" are coffee houses where they pass⟳ the basket to collect⟳ tips for the entertainers, who are not on the payroll.”

“Next month the Four Winds, an old cafe and the last⟳ basket house in the Village, will close⟳ to make⟳ way for a dress shop⟳.”

“Vince Martin showed up, Bob Gibson was expected, and all of a sudden the rogue's gallery of remember⟳ whens from the basket house days were all there.”

“Unlike many of the other clubs, it was not a so-called basket house, where walk-on performers of widely ranging competence earned only what they managed to collect⟳ in a basket they passed around the audience.”

CEFR level