释义 |
▪ I. toast, n.1|təʊst| Forms: see toast v.1 [f. toast v.1 Cf. OF. tostée (13th c.) toast = Sp. tostada (:—pop.L. *tostāta).] 1. a. (With a and pl.) A slice or piece of bread browned at the fire: often put in wine, water, or other beverage. Now rare or Obs. exc. in India.
c1430Two Cookery-bks. (E.E.T.S.) 12 Oyle Soppys..caste þer-to Safroune, powder Pepyr, Sugre, and Salt, an serue forth alle hote as tostes. c1450Cov. Myst. xix. (1841) 183 Ther is no lord lyke on lyve to me wurthe a toost. 1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. N j, Gyue hym a toste with wyne. 1573L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 94 Alphonsus..took a toast out of his cup, and cast it to the dog. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 3 Go, fetch me a quart of Sacke, put a tost in 't. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 53 All within the sound of Bow Bell, are in reproch called Cocknies, and eaters of buttered tostes. c1645Howell Lett. (1688) IV. 489 This Drink..must be attended with a brown Tost. 1709Steele Tatler No. 24 ⁋8 A Toast in a cold Morning, heightened by Nutmeg, and sweetn'd with Sugar, has for many Ages been given to our Rural Dispensers of Justice, before they enter'd upon Causes. 1735Dict. Polygraph. s.v. China, A very dry toast. 1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 291 Amulet... You may serve them up hot on buttered toasts. 1838Dickens Let. 1 Feb. (1965) I. 366 We have had for breakfast, toasts, cakes, a yorkshire pie [etc.]. 1978Vishveshvaranand Indological Jrnl. XVI. 218 He had stopped taking cereals after the age of sixty but after 85 he had to re-start on medical advice taking two toasts or some cornflakes. b. As the type of what is hot or dry, as warm (hot, etc.) as toast.
[c1430: see above.] 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 44 Loue had apeered in him to hir alway Hotte as a toste. 1694Motteux Rabelais v. Pantagr. Prognost. x, Keep your selves as hot as Toasts, d'ye hear? 1842J. Wilson Chr. North I. 83 The small brown Moorland bird, as dry as a toast. 1855A. S. Stephens Old Homestead i. 16 Every thing nice and warm as toast. 1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. 21 It keeps this end of the valley as warm as a toast. 2. a. As a substance (without a or pl.): Bread so browned by fire, electric heat, etc. (The ordinary current use.) French toast: see French a. 3.
1730Swift Panegyrickon Dean Wks. 1755 IV. i. 144 Sweeten your tea, and watch your toast. 1786Mackenzie Lounger No. 89 ⁋10 Putting him in mind where the toast stood. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 454 The diet..consisted of tea and toast. 1807–26S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 15 The patient..confining himself to vegetable diet, gruels, slops, tea, acidulated drinks, dry toast, &c. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. iii. 84 Quarrelling with her which should have the brownest bits of toast. b. Coupled with the liquid in which the toast is immersed, as ale and toast, toast and ale, toast and water; whence toast-and-watered adj., confined to a diet of toast and water.
[1586Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 47 How I drunk vp my grandams ale and toste.] 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) II. 324 Many a Night o'er Toast and Ale. 1778F. Burney Diary (1842) I. 97 Our biscuits and toast-and-water, which make the Streatham supper. 1800Med. Jrnl. IV. 313, I then directed her to live on toast and water exclusively. 1810Byron Let. to Hodgson 3 Oct., What can a helpless, feverish, toast-and-watered..wretch do? 1888Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere xliv, Lunch was on the table—the familiar commons, the familiar toast-and-water. c. on toast, served up on a slice of toast. Also fig. had on toast (slang), done, swindled; to have (one) on toast (colloq.), to have (a person) at one's mercy or ‘where one wants him’; to subject to anxiety; also with other verbs.
1842Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. St. Medard, Delicate Woodcocks served up upon toast. 1886St. James's Gaz. 6 Nov. (Farmer), The High Court..took judicial cognizance of a quaint and pleasing modern phrase..‘to be had on toast’. 1889D. C. Murray Danger. Catspaw 273 We've got him now on toast. 1895J. G. Millais Breath fr. Veldt (1899) 259 Thinking he had fairly got us on toast, he meant to blackmail us pretty freely. 1896B. L. Farjeon Betrayal of John Fordham iii. 288 ‘It's my night,’ I sed. ‘Didn't I tell yer? I've got 'im on toast.’ 1916E. F. Benson David Blaize xiv. 285 To think that half an hour ago that little squirt thought he had us on toast. 1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 127 But Tolstoi was a traitor To the Russia that needed him most... He shifted his job on to the peasants And landed them all on toast. 1942‘R. Crompton’ William Carries On v. 119 Well, let's have 'em on toast for a bit wonderin' what's happened to him. 1964J. Creasey Guilt of Innocence xvii. 151, I think the time has come to tell the Press we want to interview him... That will get 'em both on toast. 1981‘J. Ashford’ Loss of Culion xix. 151 ‘You've been positively identified by Mr Barnard.’.. ‘Then he's having you on toast.’ ‘He has no reason for lying.’ †3. fig. (usually old toast). One who drinks to excess, a soaker, a boon companion; a brisk old fellow fond of his glass. slang. Obs.
1668R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. 306 How often must I be put to the Blush too, when every Old Toast shall be calling me Old Acquaintance. c1670Cotton Voy. Irel. iii. 128 There comes in my Host, A Catholick, good, and a rare drunken Tost. a1688Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Confer. (1775) 184. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. xviii, Most of 'em of good Families; among the rest Harry Cottiral, an old Tost. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Old-Toast, a brisk old Fellow. 1709Rambling Fuddle-Cups 14 Bring my father a Quart; I'll be hang'd if 'twill do the old Toast any hurt. 4. attrib. and Comb., as toast-burner, toast-crumb, toast-fork; toast-colour, a light brown; so toast-coloured adj.; † toast-iron, a toasting-iron; toast Melba: see Melba; toast-stand, a stand for toast, etc. by the fire: see cat n.1 9, quot 1806; toast-water, water in which toasted bread has been steeped, used as a drink for invalids, etc. Also toast-rack.
1483Cath. Angl. 390/2 A Toste yren (A. Tostyrne), assatorium. 1801Nemnich Waaren-Lexicon 687/1 Toast forks, Röstgabeln, Tohstgabeln. 1872G. M. Hopkins Let. 22 Mar. (1956) 55 If you say the Mahâbhârata is your toast-crumb ordinary breakfast book I am jaundiced all marigold under the eyes. 1895Q. Rev. Oct. 283 Cobbed by his fagmaster as an incorrigible toast-burner. 1898Daily News 5 May 2/2 A toast-coloured straw toque trimmed with pink ribbon and roses. 1900Ibid. 20 Jan. 6/5 Toast colour is again included among the fashionable tints. 1905Daily Chron. 18 Dec. 4/6 Why should not toast-water become the temperance beverage for [drinking the health of the King]?
Add:[2.] d. transf. The golden-brown colour of toast; = toast-colour below.
1922Textile Colorist XLIV. 396/2 A distinctly new type of smart tans are descriptively named Muffin, Toast and Tiffin. 1966Harper's Bazaar (U.K. ed.) Sept. 40 (Advt.), Evening dress... In mimosa, toast or turquoise. 1979Hampstead & Highgate Express 22 June 7/5 (Advt.), Lace trimmed Jersey 2-piece in toast and periwinkle {pstlg}160. 1984Sears Catal. 1985 Spring/Summer 437 Sensational long sleeve stripe shirt with warm tones of blue, cream, toast and pink.
▸ colloq. (orig. U.S.). A person or thing that is defunct, dead, finished, in serious trouble, etc. Freq. in proleptic use, esp. in you're (also I'm, we're, etc.) toast: you (I, we, etc.) will soon be dead, in trouble, etc. Cf. history n. The lines in quot. 1983 do not in fact appear in the U.S. film Ghostbusters as released in 1985, since a considerable amount of the dialogue is ad-libbed. The actual words spoken by Venkman (played by Bill Murray) as he prepares to fire a laser-type weapon, are, ‘This chick is toast’; this is prob. the origin of the proleptic construction which has gained particular currency.
1983D. Aykroyd & H. Ramis Ghostbusters (film script, third draft) 123 Venkman..: Okay. That's it! I'm gonna turn this guy into toast. 1985Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald 5 May b2/2 Shake, Fedya..because you're toast! 1989C. Hiaasen Skin Tight (1990) xxiv. 264/1 I'm calling my banker in the Caymans and having him read the balance in my account. If it's not heavier by twenty-five, you're toast. 1991Sports Illustr. 8 Apr. 87/2 Soon their relationship was toast. He wanted out. 1994A. Heckerling Clueless (film script) Green Revised Pages 11 Cher. You get your report card? Dionne... Yeah, I'm toast, you'll never see me out of the house again. 2002Mojo Feb. 62/1 Brian at that time was basically a hermit and, to put it mildly, toast. ▪ II. toast, n.2 [A figurative application of toast n.1, the name of a lady being supposed to flavour a bumper like a spiced toast in the drink. See the Tatler, No. 24, of 2 June, and No. 31, of 18 June, 1709, in both of which toast is explained as a new name, upon the origin of which ‘the Learned differ very much’. No. 24 says that ‘many of the Wits of the last Age will assert’ that the term originated in an incident alleged to have occurred at Bath in the reign of Charles II, 1660–1684. No. 31 is silent as to the incident, and gives the account cited below.] 1. A lady who is named as the person to whom a company is requested to drink; often one who is the reigning belle of the season. Now only Hist.
1700Congreve Way World iii. x, More censorious than a decayed Beauty, or a discarded Toast. 1705Cibber Careless Husb. v. 63 Ay, Madam,..'t has been your Life's whole Pride of late to be the Common Toast of every Publick Table. 1709Steele Tatler No. 24 ⁋9 This Whim gave Foundation to the present Honour..done to the Lady we mention in our Liquors, who has ever since been called a Toast. Ibid. No. 31 ⁋8 Then, said he, Why do you call live People Toasts? I answered, That was a new Name found out by the Wits to make a Lady have the same Effect as Burridge in the Glass when a Man is drinking. Ibid. No. 71 ⁋8 A Beauty, whose Health is drank from Heddington to Hinksey,..has no more the Title of Lady, but reigns an undisputed Toast. 1711Swift Lett. (1767) III. 185 Lord Rochester, and his fine daughter, lady Jane, just growing a top toast. 1713Steele Guard. No. 85 ⁋7 Was that the silly thing so much talked of? How did she ever grow into a toast? 1766[C. Anstey] Bath Guide xi 34 'Tis she that has long been the Toast of the Town. 1779F. Burney Diary Oct., The present beauty,..a Mrs. Musters,..the reigning toast of the season. 1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall iv. 35 She will often speak of the toasts of those days as if still reigning. 1888Burgon 12 Gd. Men II. 346 He..described how very lovely she was..when she was a toast at Northampton. 2. Any person, male or female, whose health is proposed and drunk to; also any event, institution, or sentiment, in memory or in honour of which a company is requested to drink; also, the call or act of proposing such a health.
1746Fielding True Patriot No. 13 A toast, which you know is another word for drinking the health of one's friend..or some person of public eminence. 1780Cowper Mod. Patriot 10 When lawless mobs insult the Court, That man shall be my toast, If breaking windows be the sport, Who bravely breaks the most. 1831Sir. J. Sinclair Corr. II. 84 (Tour in 1775) He then gave as a toast, ‘Success to Scotland, and its worthy inhabitants’. The sentiment was drank with much enthusiasm. a1860T. Keightley cited in Worcester, When the toast went out of use, the sentiment took its place, and this I can remember myself. At length toast came to signify any person or thing that was to be commemorated: as ‘The King’, ‘The Land we live in’, etc. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt ii, You'll rally round the throne—and the King, God bless him, and the usual toasts. 1884Marshall's Tennis Cuts 229 Wine (..for doing honour to the toasts), cigars, etc. amounted to another 14s. 3. attrib. and Comb., as toast-drinking, toast-list, toast-man; toast-master, one who at a public dinner or the like is appointed to propose or announce the toasts; toast-master('s) glass, a drinking-glass having a thick bowl on a tall stem and thus giving the impression of having greater capacity than it really has; toast-mistress, a female toast-master.
1908Westm. Gaz. 12 Aug. 8/1 The members..were pledged to abstain from toast-drinking.
1882Ld. Dalhousie in Daily News 5 Jan. 2/3 Those gentlemen whose names are down on the toast-list to respond for the House of Commons.
1814Sporting Mag. XLIV. 45 Oft amid the merry tattle, The toastman's empty cup would rattle.
1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. xii, The lieutenant, who was the toast-master, was not contented with Sophia only. He said he must have her sirname. 1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man 111, No man was fitter to be a toast-master to a club. 1818Scott Let. to Ld. Montagu 12 Nov. in Lockhart, I was at the cattle⁓show on the 6th, and executed the delegated task of toast-master.
1916J. H. Yoxall Collecting Old Glass ix. 63 (heading) Toastmaster glasses. 1919M. Percival Glass Collector 162 Toast-masters' [sic] glasses are found in many varieties. 1969Canad. Antiques Collector Oct. 25/1 The tiny, clear toastmaster glass was usually solid except for a narrow v-shaped depression at the top capable of holding a bare half-ounce of liquor.
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 7 Apr. 7/5 The toast mistress, Mrs. Sutton, referred in very complimentary terms to the naval lads and their splendid services during the war. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. j 6/1 She..has been picked as ‘Toastmistress of the Year’. ▪ III. toast, n.3 Chiefly U.S. (and W. Indies).|təʊst| [Perh. f. toast n.2] 1. A type of long narrative poem recited extempore by American and Caribbean Blacks.
1962R. D. Abrahams in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 300/1 Many of them [sc. insults] take the form of rhymes or puns, signaling the beginning of the bloom of verbal dexterity which comes to fruition later in the long narrative poem called the ‘toast’. 1972T. Kochman Rappin' & Stylin' Out 261 The best talkers from this group often become the successful streetcorner, barber shop, and pool hall storytellers who deliver the long, rhymed, witty narrative stories called ‘toasts’. 1978Maledicta II. 290 An extraordinary collection of black American folk poetry (toasts) collected by the author from lower-class black males (inmates of county jails, streetcorner gangs). 2. In reggae, a performance by a disc-jockey who speaks or shouts while playing a record.
1980N. Kimberley in J. Collis Rock Primer 249 The wedding of John Holt's sentimental singing and Roy's effervescent toast..show [sic] us the new musical idiom in full flower. 1983Listener 19 May 22/3 Loud and bass-heavy ‘dub’ music with a patois talkover ‘toast’ booms into the bus. ▪ IV. toast, v.1|təʊst| Forms: 5–7 tost, 5–6 toste, tooste, (6 Sc. toyst), 6– toast. [ad. OF. toster (12th c. in Godef.) to roast or grill:—pop.L. *tostāre, f. tost-, supine stem of L. torrēre to parch; cf. Sp., Pg. tostar, It. tostare.] 1. a. trans. To burn as the sun does, to parch; to heat thoroughly. Obs. exc. as transf. from 2.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. lii. (Bodl. MS), Ethiopia..þe sonne is nyȝe and rosteþ and tosteþ ham. 1582N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. ii. 6 b, They haue for armes or weapons certaine staues of an Oke tree bathed or toasted with fire. 1626Bacon Sylva §665 The Earth whereof the grass is soon parched with the Sun and toasted. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 106 Some flowers must be warmed, some toasted, and some almost scalded. 1860–1F. Nightingale Nursing 56 A careful woman will air her whole bedding, at least once a week,..by hanging it out in fine weather in the sun and air, or by toasting it before a hot fire. b. fig. To redden (by drinking).
1701Cibber Love makes Man v. iii, Now, Charles, we'll e'en toast our Noses over a chirping Bottle. c. intr. for refl. To warm oneself thoroughly.
1614W. Browne Sheph. Pipe i. B iij b, I will sing what I did leere..Of a skilfull aged Sire, As we tosted by the fire. 1861Holland Less. Life i. 10 Toasting in the sunlight is conducive rather to reverie than thought. 2. a. To brown (bread, cheese, etc.) by exposure to the heat of a fire, etc.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 14 Loke thou tost fyne w[h]ete brede. c1440Promp. Parv. 497/2 Tooste brede, or oþer lyke, torreo. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour cxxi. (1906) 170 Men must..toste and Rost them before the fyre. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 106 If it [Psillium] be perched or tosted at the fyre. 1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 23 Theyre corne in quernstoans thye doe grind and toste yt on embers. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 130 Toasting of cheese in Wales and seething of Rice in Turkey will enable a man freely to professe the Art of Cookery. 1672Grew Anat. Plants, Idea Philos. Hist. §42 The Root of Horse-Radish, toasted, tasteth like a Turnep. 1796H. Glasse Cookery xiv. 230 Toast a slice of bread brown on both sides. 1808Med. Jrnl. XIX. 74 The seeds are by some people toasted, so as to be used in the manner of coffee. 1849Dickens Dav. Copp. xxiv, I'll toast you some bacon in a bachelor's Dutch-oven. b. transf. To warm (one's feet or toes) at a fire.
1860Emerson Cond. Life, Culture Wks. (Bohn) II. 373 People..who toast their feet on the register. 1869Lowell Under the Willows, Prelude i, My Elmwood chimneys seem crooning to me..As I sit in my arm-chair, and toast my toes. 1894Crockett Raiders 240, I toasted my feet at the fire, setting them on the hot hearthstone to dry. c. intr. for pass. To undergo toasting; to be toasted.
1845–51[implied in toaster1 2 b]. Mod. This cheese toasts well. †3. To destroy or disintegrate with fire. Obs.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 174 Nabuchodonosor whose purpose was to toast with fire and vtterly destroy the martyrs of God. 1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xcvi. 279 The onely fume or smoake of Nigella tosted or burnt, driueth away Serpents. Hence ˈtoasted ppl. a.; ˈtoasting vbl. n., also in comb., as toasting-jack, toast-pan; toasting-fork, a fork used for toasting bread, etc.; fig. a rapier or sword; toasting-iron (arch.) = prec.
1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 116 For their lyuery fiue pound of *tosted bread, two pounde of Beefe, and a gallon of wyne. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. (1634) 178 To draw out a Mouse with a piece of tosted Cheese. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 606 Crumbs of toasted bread.
1541–2Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VIII. 51 For..ane kais to ane *toysting pan, and for ane kais to four ladillis. 1595Shakes. John iv. iii. 99 Put vp thy sword betime; Or Ile so maule you, and your tosting-Iron. 1807Southey Lett. from Eng. I. xvii. 185 Pocket-toasting-forks have been invented, as if it were possible to want a toasting-fork in the pocket. 1836Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 164 An order ensued, that..the Sir Charles Grandisons of the day should leave their toasting-irons in another room. 1838Dickens O. Twist xiii, The Dodger snatched up the toasting fork, and made a pass at the merry old gentleman's waistcoat. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xli, If I had given him time to get at his other pistol, or his toasting fork, it was all up. 1873Holland A. Bonnic. viii, The girl with the toasting-jack dropped her implement to answer the unwelcome summons. ▪ V. toast, v.2 Also 7 tost. [f. toast n.2] 1. intr. To name a person to whose health or in whose honour, or a thing or sentiment to the success of which or in honour of which, the company is requested to drink; to propose or drink a toast. Const. to.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tost, to name or begin a new Health. Who Tosts now? Who Christens the Health? 1701F. Manning Poems 73 When ere I Toast..I'll begin No Giant's Health. 1709Prior Hans Carvel 111 The Colonel toasted to the best. 1756W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans IV. 207 The sage of the cottage..toasted to the prosperity of his liberal benefactors! 2. trans. To name when a toast is drunk; to drink in honour of (a person or thing).
1700Congreve Way World iv. v, Mirabell. That on no Account you encroach upon the Mens prerogative, and presume to drink Healths, or toast Fellows. Millamant... I toast Fellows! odious Men! 1703Rowe Fair Penit. Epil., Ev'ry marry'd Man shall toast his Wife. 1712Steele Spect. No. 462 ⁋4 With continual toasting Healths to the Royal Family. 1775Sheridan Duenna i. i, I love dearly to toast her. 1828Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1851) I. 53 The cause for which Hampden bled on the field and Sidney on the scaffold is..toasted by many an honest radical. 1836Random Recoll. Ho. Lords ix. 192 Times without number did he toast ‘The Liberty of the Press’. 1852Thackeray Esmond i. x, They..toasted past and present heroes and beauties in flagons of college ale. Hence ˈtoasting vbl. n. and ppl. a.; toasting glass, a glass used for drinking toasts, formerly inscribed with the name of a belle or with verses in her honour.
1703Garth (title) Verses written for the Toasting-Glasses of the Kit-Cat-Club. Ibid. 28 When Jove to Ida did the gods invite, And in immortal toasting pass'd the night. 1821–30Ld. Cockburn Mem. i. (1874) 34 In that toasting and loyal age, the King was never forgotten. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 455 A few well turned lines inscribed on a set of toasting glasses. 1885Manch. Exam. 14 May 5/1 The institution of dinners with elaborate toasting. ▪ VI. toast, v.3|təʊst| [See toast n.3] trans. and intr. In reggae, to accompany (music) by speaking or shouting. Freq. ˈtoasting vbl. n.3
1976New Musical Express 17 Apr. 17/5 Another bass riff that cracks foundations, knocks down walls, and brushes aside nine stone weaklings, but this and all the dubwise trickery in Trenchtown can't hide the absolute ordinariness of Woosh's toasting. 1980N. Kimberley in J. Collis Rock Primer 249 Much of the strength of ‘Your Ace From Space’, ‘Version Galore’, etc, lies in the original rhythm which Roy toasts. 1980Times 19 May 9/4 A group of young London blacks whose lives centre on their reggae music—the technology of sound systems, the virtuoso techniques of improvisational ‘toasting’. |