bake1
/beɪk
/verb [with object]
1Cook (food) by dry heat without direct exposure to a flame, typically in an oven: they bake their own bread and cakes...
- The advantage lies in the fact that microwave oven bakes the moist ingredients about three times faster.
- She entered the kitchen to the enticing smell of beef stew, newly baked bread, and apple pie.
- We cook, bake bread, make cheese, sew, make soap and candles, and milk goats.
Synonyms
cook, oven-bake, dry-roast, roast, spit-roast, pot-roast
rare oven
1.1 [no object] (Of food) be cooked by baking: the bread was baking on hot stones...
- To help keep larger cuts of meat from drying out while broiling, grilling or baking, sear them first.
- While pie is baking, mix the topping ingredients, first the butter and brown sugar until crumbly, then blending in the nuts.
- While the pie was baking, she removed some vegetables and meat from the icebox to prepare for dinner.
2(Of the sun or other agency) subject (something) to dry heat, especially so as to harden it: the soil in the desert is baked dry by the fierce heat of the sun...
- Foolishly I brought my sandals to the arena where the bands are today in a misguided hope that the sun would bake the mud dry… oh no no no.
- When the mud gets baked by the sun, spreading cracks curve around the weakened edge of this column and so bypass the insect.
- The early afternoon sun was now baking my tired body as I cruised the rolling downhills listening to my IPod.
Synonyms
scorch, burn, sear, parch, dry (up), desiccate, wither, shrivel, fire;
North American broil
2.1 [no object] informal Be or become extremely hot in prolonged sun or hot weather: the city was baking in a heatwave...
- And unusual weather takes the fun out of summer, as many people bake in the worst heat wave in years.
- We had been in the Gulf for several months, baking in the summer heat.
- The BSE crisis came on top of a poor crop production year in 2003 as most of western Canada baked under a summer-long heat wave.
noun [with modifier]
1A dish consisting of a mixture of ingredients cooked in an oven: a vegetable bake...
- To date they have made paella, pasta bake, and fishcakes.
- Typical products affected by the alert are shepherd's pies, pasta bakes, cottage pies, chicken wings, sausage casseroles, pizzas, steak and kidney pies and chilli con carne.
- This is the second time in a few weeks that a similar scenario has ensued in different circumstances and I am rather tired of eating overpriced pasta bake and being made to feel that being veggie is a nuisance.
1.1 [with modifier] North American A social gathering at which baked food of a specified kind is eaten: lobster bakes...
- Becker was at the annual Kirkland Rotary salmon bake.
- The lobster bake was clearly a coming-out party for Allen.
- The Willimantic Elks Club sponsors its annual lobster bake Aug. 25 starting at 5:30 p.m.
Phrases
baked in the cake
Phrasal verbs
bake something in
Origin
Old English bacan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch bakken and German backen.
Rhymes
bake2
/beɪk/(also baik)
noun Northern Irish informal
1A person’s mouth: shut your bake!...
- Sit down an' close your bake.
- Shut your bake Mark, and quit gawping!
- If in doubt, just shut your bake and open your ears.
1.1A person’s face: my oul bake is in every major newspaper...
- She's tried to force his hand and ended up with a metaphorical slap in the bake.
- Who will triumph in teetering stilettos and who will fall flat on her fake-tanned bake?
- I know what you're thinking when you see my oul' bake.
Origin
1920s: representing a pronunciation of beak1.