roast

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To cook food, especially meat or vegetables, with dry heat in an oven or over a fire.

   We roasted a turkey for the dinner.

2. 2
   adj

   Cooked with dry heat in an oven.

   We had roast chicken for dinner.

3. 3
   verb

   To dry and brown something, such as coffee beans, with heat.

   The beans are roasted before being ground.

4. 4
   verb

   To make fun of or criticize someone harshly, often for entertainment.

   His friends roasted him about his terrible dancing.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Roast entered Middle English from Old French rostir, a verb of West Germanic origin. It originally meant cooking food before an open fire, as distinct from baking it in an oven; the colloquial sense “ridicule or criticize” appeared in the early 18th century.

From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rosterje (“to roast”), Dutch roosten, roosteren (“to roast”), German rösten (“to roast”). Displaced native Middle English breden, bræden (“to roast”), from Old English brǣdan, related to German braten (“to roast, grill”).

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary