baste

C2+ Topic:Cooking & Baking

US /beɪst/ UK /beɪst/ See IPA manual

Homophones

based /beɪst/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like best /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/

Meanings

1

verb
to moisten roasting meat with fat or juices; also to tack with loose stitches

Baste the turkey every twenty minutes to keep it moist.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to moisten roasting meat... moisten drizzle brush tack stitch sew

Word family

Derived forms basterbasting

Simplified etymology

Baste in the sense “thrash” is recorded from the mid-16th century and is probably of Scandinavian origin. It later became the second element of lambaste, originally “beat or thrash.”

Etymology

The cooking sense is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French basser ('to moisten'); the sewing sense ('to tack') is from Old French bastir ('to sew loosely, build'), of Germanic origin.

bastir Old French *bastjan Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Cooking & Baking Actions & Processes

External links

# baste

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /beɪst/
**IPA (UK):** /beɪst/

## Meanings
1. to moisten roasting meat with fat or juices; also to tack with loose stitches

## Examples
- Baste the turkey every twenty minutes to keep it moist.

## Synonyms
- moisten
- drizzle
- brush
- tack
- stitch
- sew

## Derived Forms
- baster
- basting

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bastir
- Root: *bastjan

## Etymology
The cooking sense is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French basser ('to moisten'); the sewing sense ('to tack') is from Old French bastir ('to sew loosely, build'), of Germanic origin.

## AI Etymology
baste has the etymological history: The cooking sense is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French basser ('to moisten'); the sewing sense ('to tack') is from Old French bastir ('to sew loosely, build'), of Germanic origin. The explanation preserves that uncertainty: the proposed comparisons illuminate the form, but they do not turn the word into a securely traced inheritance or borrowing. In modern use, the verb sense is "to moisten roasting meat with fat or juices; also to tack with loose stitches", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes derivatives such as baster, basting, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old French bastir, Proto-Germanic *bastjan, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Cooking & Baking
- Actions & Processes

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