pasty
1 Americanadjective
-
pastier,
comparative
-
pastiest
superlative
noun
-
pasties
plural
noun
-
pasties
plural
adjective
-
of or like the colour, texture, etc, of paste
-
(esp of the complexion) pale or unhealthy-looking
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of pasty1
1650–60 pasty 1 for def. 1; 1950–55 pasty 1 for def. 2; paste + -y 1 pasty 1 ( for def. 1 ), -y 2 pasty 1 ( for def. 2 )
Origin of pasty2
1250–1300; Middle English pastee < Middle French. See pâté
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.
See Examples For:
The cherry tomatoes burst, their skins turning silky and their juices almost pasty around the edges.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
If there's one thing the transatlantic cousins of Cornwall and Hidalgo will have in common this summer, it's that they'll be enjoying the World Cup with a pasty - or paste - in hand.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
Watching Will Ferrell in prison booty shorts showing off his pasty white legs feels like a crazy way to soothe the Sunday scaries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2025
And, of course, the town still cherishes and serves up the pasty.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
“Its natural consistency is a bit gelatinous and pasty, really, but whipped together with a soup^on of remoulade and spread upon white meat, it’s quite palatable.”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Greggs has previously said peoples' dietary changes led it to move away from its usual fare of hearty and high-fat pasties, cakes and pastries.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
These are pasties, crescent-shaped hand pies that originated as a lunch food for miners in Cornwall, England, and have become a mainstay in Grass Valley, 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
She’s interested in adding regular savories such as pasties and sausage rolls, and maybe bringing new treats such as trifles or Eton Messes to her roster.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
Cloake enjoys hers alongside summer berries and even adds a spoonful to her Cornish pasties, for "a touch of luxury."
From Salon ● Dec. 10, 2022
Then I’d collect the smashed pottery and the smashed meat pasties and grind them into all my perfect stitchery.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
Beyond Meat starts off a bit mushier and pastier, but once it starts cooking, it breaks up and browns just fine.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2020
In the comics, he has at times been reconfigured as a heroic vigilante, not unlike Batman with distinctly pastier colouring, a thirst for bad-guy blood, and actual chiropteran superpowers.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 5, 2018
Viewers also have watched the various stages of transformation from human victim to full-fledged bloodsucker, with characters getting pastier, hungrier and scarier by the moment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2014
Every day the flabby cheeks grew pastier and the pouches under the eyebrows heavier.
From The Last Shot by Frederick Palmer
Years ago, in my earliest and pastiest days as a would-be writer, I once read a new story aloud to S. and Boo Boo.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
