half-baked

[haf-beykt, hahf-]

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.

half-baked

adjective

1. insufficiently baked

2. informal,  foolish; stupid

3. informal,  poorly planned or conceived

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-baked¹

First recorded in 1615–25

Example Sentences

We usually die half-baked, so he finishes the cooking, turning up the heat.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Less successful were a half-baked mashup, “Beauty and Mr. Beast,” about the popular YouTuber, and a sorority sketch with Mikey Day as an interloping man wearing a bad facial disguise.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Hence, his first solo offering, “McCartney,” was mostly tentative, half-baked notions for songs, interlaced with a few fully realized compositions like “Maybe I’m Amazed,” all recorded by McCartney in his home studio.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Can Rachel McAdams sue the attorney general for this half-baked theft of her iconic movie villain?

Read more on Salon

On Monday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent economic think-tank, said that the chancellor should avoid "directionless tinkering and half-baked fixes" when trying to boost the government's tax take in the Budget.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• idiotic 
• ill-conceived 
• witless