Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

I never heard of it, either. I wonder what the original speaker was
thinking of when he or she said it. It's not a common thing for baskets
to tip when they are filled with nuts.

I have this image of tipping the *scales* -- the last nut added causing
the balance scale to move.

Or maybe they thought "tip" means to fill to the tip-top? Which implies
nothing happened, really, except that now the basket is full.

There are only 15 uses of "to tip the basket" on the Web, and all of
them are literal. For example, "I asked Jacky to tip the basket up far
enough to dump them out."

I agree with this interpretation.

I recall as a youngster wondering how one straw could be so heavy.