half-baked

American  

[haf-beykt, hahf-] / ˈhæfˈbeɪkt, ˈhɑf- /

adjective

1. insufficiently cooked.

2. not completed; insufficiently planned or prepared.

   a half-baked proposal for tax reform.

3. lacking mature judgment or experience; unrealistic.

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half-baked British  

adjective

1. insufficiently baked

2. informal foolish; stupid

3. informal poorly planned or conceived

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Etymology

Origin of half-baked

First recorded in 1615–25

Explanation

You can use the adjective half-baked to describe your sadly underdone cupcakes, or in a figurative way to criticize your brother's crazy business idea. When something's half-baked, it's just never going to work. If your plan for moving to Iceland is half-baked, it means you haven't thought the whole thing through. This metaphorical meaning came from the original definition of half-baked, literally "baked halfway" or "underdone." If something's half-baked, nobody wants to eat it — it's useless. An idea or plan, likewise, is half-baked if isn't worth wasting time on.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half-baked

Or they resort to fanciful or half-baked plans if they get sick.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

But then there’s not much about this war that wasn’t ill-conceived and half-baked.

From Salon ● May 28, 2026

The first efforts went into half-baked compliance cars, built in small numbers to satisfy California’s advanced-vehicle technology mandate—a conspiracy of lameness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

Meta’s Quest headsets were still clunky, and the software looked half-baked.

From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026

His plan for surviving in China was as half-baked as his plan had been for escaping North Korea.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

Related Words

• idiotic
• ill-conceived
• witless