bake

American  

[beyk] / beɪk /

verb (used with object)

baked, baking

1. to cook by dry heat in an oven or on heated metal or stones.

2. to harden by heat.

   to bake pottery in a kiln.

3. to dry by, or subject to heat.

   The sun baked the land.

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verb (used without object)

baked, baking

1. to bake bread, a casserole, etc.

2. to become baked.

   The cake will bake in about half an hour.

3. to be subjected to heat.

   The lizard baked on the hot rocks.

noun

1. a social occasion at which the chief food is baked.

2. Scot. cracker.

verb phrase

1. bake in / into

   1. Computers. to incorporate (a feature) as part of a system or piece of software or hardware while it is still in development.

      The location-tracking service is baked in the new app.

      Security features come baked into the operating system.

   2. to include as an inseparable or permanent part.

      Baked into the price of the product is the cost of advertising.

bake British  

/ beɪk /

verb

1. (tr) to cook by dry heat in or as if in an oven

2. (intr) to cook bread, pastry, etc, in an oven

3. to make or become hardened by heat

4. informal (intr) to be extremely hot, as in the heat of the sun

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noun

1. a party at which the main dish is baked

2. a batch of things baked at one time

3. a kind of biscuit

4. a small flat fried cake

Other Word Forms

• outbake verb (used with object)
• overbake verb
• prebake verb
• rebake verb (used with object)
• unbaked adjective
• underbake verb (used with object)
• well-baked adjective

Etymology

Origin of bake

First recorded before 1000; Middle English baken, Old English bacan; cognate with Old High German bahhan, Old Norse baka; akin to Dutch bakken, German backen, Greek phṓgein “to roast”; from Proto-Indo-European extended root bhēg-, bhōg- “to warm, roast”

Example Sentences

You can cook two large things on the weekend — a pan of baked ziti, a pot of curry — and alternate between them until takeout night rolls around on Friday.

From Salon

Whatever the outcome of the legal cases surrounding CVOW, pausing the project at this point won’t lower costs, because the state regulator has already baked them into bills.

From The Wall Street Journal

“I was in the forest. I saw—” “Well, wash them—with soap, please—and come to the table. I baked.”

From Literature

Sea Lion one minute, baked beans on toast the next.

From Literature

That suggests a meaningful amount of future growth is already baked into the shares—and investors will be looking for proof it can be delivered.

From Barron's

Related Words

• heat
• melt
• simmer
• stew
• warm