bake
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cook by dry heat in an oven or on heated metal or stones.
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to harden by heat.
to bake pottery in a kiln.
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to dry by, or subject to heat.
The sun baked the land.
verb (used without object)
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to bake bread, a casserole, etc.
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to become baked.
The cake will bake in about half an hour.
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to be subjected to heat.
The lizard baked on the hot rocks.
noun
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a social occasion at which the chief food is baked.
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Scot. cracker.
verb phrase
verb
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(tr) to cook by dry heat in or as if in an oven
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(intr) to cook bread, pastry, etc, in an oven
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to make or become hardened by heat
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informal (intr) to be extremely hot, as in the heat of the sun
noun
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a party at which the main dish is baked
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a batch of things baked at one time
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a kind of biscuit
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a small flat fried cake
Other Word Forms
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”
Explanation
To bake something is to cook it in a hot oven. When you bake a batch of blueberry muffins, your whole house smells delicious. Whether you bake some cookies for dessert, a casserole to take to a potluck supper, or bake a clay pot in a kiln, you cook with a relatively slow, dry heat. You can also use the word bake figuratively: "Are you going to move into the shade, or are you just going to bake in the sun all day?" The Old English word was bacan, from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing bake
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But for deeper flavor, transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 20–25 minutes, until bubbling around the edges and slightly thickened.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
This is where the tray bake comes in.
From Salon • May 5, 2026
She devised a system that hulled and cleaned corn kernels, and then used mechanical pestles or stamping mechanisms to process the kernels into meal that could be used to bake bread and make other food.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
The spacecraft has been rotated to face the sun to "bake off any ice" and heaters have been activated, "and we still see blockage," he said.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
“Should we hire Stephanie to bake cupcakes for the occasion? She is the cupcake queen.”
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
