half-baked
[haf-beykt, hahf-]
- insufficiently cooked.
- not completed; insufficiently planned or prepared: a half-baked proposal for tax reform.
- lacking mature judgment or experience; unrealistic.
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Origin of half-baked
First recorded in 1615–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for half-baked
Contemporary Examples
"The ideas were good, but they were half-baked," one senior staffer explained.
Then there were those songs that were either too half-baked or half-hearted to even fool us into turning them into smash hits.
But the anti-Stalinism competes with half-baked fantasies about a better tomorrow.
The coverage was too busy with hashtags and a half-baked hyperfocus on TeamUSA.
Ultimately, this is a Christmas of no-bake cookies, half-baked theology, and pre-packaged Christmas stories.
Historical Examples
And so he is; he's like yourself, he's only half-baked, the half thick.
The Shadow of a CrimeHall Caine
And is not the half-baked designer in as sorry a plight as the half-baked artist of any kind?
College TeachingPaul Klapper
As this sago is half-baked in this operation, it will keep for a very long time.
Chatterbox, 1905.Various
More than a dozen bodies lay upon it, half-baked, half-roasted!
The Scalp HuntersMayne Reid
If not, it is wiser to defer than to offer a half-baked opinion.
The Armed Forces OfficerU. S. Department of Defense
half-baked
- insufficiently baked
- informal foolish; stupid
- informal poorly planned or conceived
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for half-baked
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper