roast
Americanverb (used with object)
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roasts,
present (3rd person singular)
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roasted,
past participle, past
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roasting
present participle
-
to bake (meat or other food) uncovered, especially in an oven.
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to cook (meat or other food) by direct exposure to dry heat, as on a spit.
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to brown, dry, or parch by exposure to heat, as coffee beans.
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to cook or heat by embedding in hot coals, embers, etc..
to roast chestnuts.
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to heat excessively.
The summer sun has been roasting the entire countryside.
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Metallurgy. to heat (ore or the like) in air in order to oxidize it.
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to warm at a hot fire.
She roasted her hands over the fire.
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Informal. to ridicule or criticize severely or mercilessly.
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to honor with or subject to a roast.
Friends roasted the star at a charity dinner.
verb (used without object)
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roasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
roasted,
past participle, past
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roasting
present participle
-
to roast meat or other food.
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to undergo the process of becoming roasted.
noun
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roasts
plural
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roasted meat or a piece of roasted meat, as a piece of beef or veal of a quantity and shape for slicing into more than one portion.
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a piece of meat for roasting.
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something that is roasted.
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the act or process of roasting.
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Informal. severe criticism.
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a facetious ceremonial tribute, usually concluding a banquet, in which the guest of honor is both praised and good-naturedly insulted in a succession of speeches by friends and acquaintances.
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an outdoor get-together, as a picnic or barbecue, at which food is roasted and eaten.
a weenie roast.
adjective
verb
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to cook (meat or other food) by dry heat, usually with added fat and esp in an oven
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to brown or dry (coffee, etc) by exposure to heat
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metallurgy to heat (an ore) in order to produce a concentrate that is easier to smelt
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to heat (oneself or something) to an extreme degree, as when sunbathing, sitting before the fire, etc
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(intr) to be excessively and uncomfortably hot
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informal to criticize severely
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overroastverb
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underroastverb (used with object)
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half-roastedadjective
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roastableadjective
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unroastedadjective
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well-roastedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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roastsimple
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roastssimple
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have roastedperfect
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has roastedperfect
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am roastingprogressive
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are roastingprogressive
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is roastingprogressive
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have been roastingperfect progressive
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has been roastingperfect progressive
Past
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roastedsimple
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had roastedperfect
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was roastingprogressive
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were roastingprogressive
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had been roastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of roast
1250–1300; Middle English rosten (v.) < Old French rostir < Germanic; compare Dutch roosten, German rösten
Explanation
Roast a turkey by cooking it in the oven. Roast a friend by calling her a turkey on her birthday. To roast can mean to cook, or to poke fun of someone as a way of honoring them. In cooking, slow, dry heat is used to roast things. When a cook roasts a piece of meat, you can call the meat itself a roast too. Another way to use this word is to mean “to make fun of someone,” like a toast but meaner and funnier. Comedians are known to roast each other, telling one joke after another mocking the person they're celebrating. This comes from an eighteenth century use of roast to mean "an unmerciful bantering."
Vocabulary lists containing roast
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:
As I creep through the heavy fog of Silent Hill: Townfall, I'm met by an oddly familiar sight amid the terror - a sign for a Sunday roast.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The comedian was back in the news once again due to the fallout from his Netflix roast in May.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Hart telling critics that “tasteless” jokes have always been part of any roast only intensified the ire.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
“Everyone has their mom’s meatloaf or grandma’s roast chicken,” company chef Holly Faivre said, “but how can we make this fit all of the boxes for GLP-1s?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
“I like roast beef and mashed potatoes with homemade gravy and...hmm...carrots? No. Peas. No. Carrots.”
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
Also called a cumulonimbus flammagenitus, they can occur during volcanic eruptions or, as in this case, when a wildfire roasts the air near the ground, causing it to rise quickly.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
"My agent still roasts me about the fact that I used to go to castings dressed in jeans and NYU T-shirts that I'd got for free," she told British Vogue in February.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
The “expectant widow” line was a morbid, vaguely risqué gag, the kind of joke that has been standard fare at the Correspondents’ Dinner and roasts for decades.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
New featured cast member Culhane debuted on “Update” as Mr. On Blast, a roasting commentator with very light roasts and a lot of body language.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
Also on board were two pigs purchased by McNeish for future pork roasts, as well as the rats and mice that stow away on any ship.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
I am certainly not claiming to have invented roasted chicken soup.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
For their main course they dined on a sesame-crusted sea bass, braised bok choy and roasted eggplant.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
“The Aztec culture pervades Mexico City’s daily life today in a thousand subtle ways,” Romero says, passing me a bowl of roasted grasshoppers, a crunchy pre-Hispanic snack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Successive heat spells have roasted the continent since May, bringing temperatures of 40C and above -- and dragging drought and devastating wildfires in their wake.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
I managed to shoot a dove and a rabbit—not much for five boys—and at noon we roasted them on a spit over the fire.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Their itinerary included roasting marshmallows, competing in potato-sack races and building human pyramids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Turning on the oven quite literally changes the climate of my entire workplace — but roasting summer fruit is one of the few things that makes the sacrifice worthwhile.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Another reason to own energy stocks may be to help compensate you for global roasting.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
Hand roasting coffee beans is a slow, careful process.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Too early for a campfire, and I didn’t figure they were roasting marshmallows.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
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.
