Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cook with dry heat, as in an oven or near hot coals.
  • intransitive verb To dry, brown, or parch by exposing to heat.
  • intransitive verb To expose to great or excessive heat.
  • intransitive verb Metallurgy To heat (ores) in a furnace in order to dehydrate, purify, or oxidize before smelting.
  • intransitive verb To ridicule or criticize harshly.
  • intransitive verb To honor at or subject to a roast.
  • intransitive verb To cook food in an oven.
  • intransitive verb To undergo roasting.
  • noun Something roasted.
  • noun A cut of meat suitable or prepared for roasting.
  • noun The act or process of roasting.
  • noun The state of being roasted.
  • noun Harsh ridicule or criticism.
  • noun A facetious tribute, as at a banquet, in which the honoree is alternately praised and insulted.
  • adjective Roasted.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Roasted: as, roast beef; roast meat.
  • noun That which is roasted, specifically a piece of beef; that part of a slaughtered animal which is selected for roasting, as a sirloin of beef or a shoulder of mutton.
  • To cook, dress, or prepare (meats) for eating, originally on a grate or gridiron over or beneath a fire (broiling), but now by exposure to the direct action of dry heat (toasting).
  • To heat to excess; heat violently.
  • To dry and parch by exposure to heat: as, to roast coffee.
  • In metallurgy, to heat with access of air. ; ;
  • To expose (a person) to scathing ridicule or jesting, as by a company of persons, or for the amusement of a company.
  • To perform the act of cooking by the direct action of dry heat.
  • To become roasted or fit for eating by exposure to fire; hence, to be overheated or parched.
  • In agriculture, in the process of bare-fallowing, to subject (the soil) to the full force of the sun in order to kill the weeds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To cook meat, fish, etc., by heat, as before the fire or in an oven.
  • intransitive verb To undergo the process of being roasted.
  • transitive verb To cook by exposure to radiant heat before a fire; ; also, to cook in a close oven.
  • transitive verb To cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc..
  • transitive verb To dry and parch by exposure to heat
  • transitive verb Hence, to heat to excess; to heat violently; to burn.
  • transitive verb (Metal.) To dissipate by heat the volatile parts of, as ores.
  • transitive verb colloq. To banter severely.
  • noun That which is roasted; a piece of meat which has been roasted, or is suitable for being roasted.
  • noun to be at the head of affairs.
  • adjective Roasted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To cook food by heating in an oven or over fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance to the food.
  • verb To process by drying through exposure to sun or artificial heat
  • verb transitive, figuratively To admonish someone vigorously
  • verb transitive, figuratively To subject to bantering, severely criticize, sometimes as a comedy routine.
  • noun A cut of meat suited to roasting
  • noun A meal consisting of roast foods.
  • noun A comical event where a person is subjected to verbal attack, yet may be praised by sarcasm and jokes.
  • adjective having been cooked by roasting
  • adjective figuratively subjected to roasting, bantered, severely criticized

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a piece of meat roasted or for roasting and of a size for slicing into more than one portion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rosten, from Old French rostir, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rosten, from Old French rostir ("to roast") (Modern French: rôtir), from Frankish *rōstjan (“to roast”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijanan (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *reus- (“to crackle, roast”). Cognate with Dutch roosteren ("to roast"), German rösten ("to roast").

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