roast

[rohst]

verb (used with object)

1. to bake (meat or other food) uncovered, especially in an oven.

2. to cook (meat or other food) by direct exposure to dry heat, as on a spit.

3. to brown, dry, or parch by exposure to heat, as coffee beans.

4. to cook or heat by embedding in hot coals, embers, etc..

   to roast chestnuts.

5. to heat excessively.

   The summer sun has been roasting the entire countryside.

6. Metallurgy.,  to heat (ore or the like) in air in order to oxidize it.

7. to warm at a hot fire.

   She roasted her hands over the fire.

8. Informal.,  to ridicule or criticize severely or mercilessly.

9. to honor with or subject to a roast.

   Friends roasted the star at a charity dinner.

verb (used without object)

1. to roast meat or other food.

2. to undergo the process of becoming roasted.

noun

1. 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.

2. a piece of meat for roasting.

3. something that is roasted.

4. the act or process of roasting.

5. Informal.,  severe criticism.

6. 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.

7. an outdoor get-together, as a picnic or barbecue, at which food is roasted and eaten.

   a weenie roast.

adjective

1. roasted.

   roast beef.

roast

/ rəʊst /

verb

1. to cook (meat or other food) by dry heat, usually with added fat and esp in an oven

2. to brown or dry (coffee, etc) by exposure to heat

3. metallurgy to heat (an ore) in order to produce a concentrate that is easier to smelt

4. to heat (oneself or something) to an extreme degree, as when sunbathing, sitting before the fire, etc

5. (intr) to be excessively and uncomfortably hot

6. informal,  to criticize severely

noun

1. something that has been roasted, esp meat

Other Word Forms

• roastable adjective
• half-roasted adjective
• overroast verb
• underroast verb (used with object)
• unroasted adjective
• well-roasted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of roast¹

1250–1300; Middle English rosten (v.) < Old French rostir < Germanic; compare Dutch roosten, German rösten

Word History and Origins

Origin of roast¹

C13: from Old French rostir , of Germanic origin; compare Middle Dutch roosten to roast

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, the smell of roasting meat was undeniable.

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In one ad, he tapped Morgan Spector, the bearded star of the HBO hit “The Gilded Age,” to roast the rich for whining about socialism while chomping on lobster.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Uptown restaurant goers are neighborhood people, the kind who will come in once or twice a week to spend $99 for his “famous” roast chicken or sit at the bar for a drink.

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You roast your own vegetables at 5 a.m.?

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The instinct that pairs chèvre with strawberries is the same one that tells you to finish a bowl of lentils with lemon juice, or to scatter pickled shallots over roast chicken.

Read more on Salon