Cast Meaning
/kɑːst/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo move, or be moved, away.
verbTo move, or be moved, away., To throw.
Sentence Examples
The fisherman cast his line into the water.
A huge tanker cast off just now.
She cast a welcoming smile in his direction.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The director chose the entire ____ of actors for the upcoming film.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor put a white ____ on his leg after he broke it in the game.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kas- Proto-Germanic *kastōną Old Norse kastabor. Middle English casten English cast From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp. The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Why then a Ladder quaintly made of Cords / To cast vp, with a paire of anchoring hookes, / Would serue to scale another Hero's towre[…]."
— c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
"The more, an' please your honour, the pity, said the Corporal; in uttering which, he cast his spade into the wheelbarrow[…]."
— 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], page 262:
"As Jesus walked by the see off Galile, he sawe two brethren: Simon which was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, castynge a neet into the see (for they were fisshers)[…]."
— 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew iiij:
"So she to Guyon offred it to tast; / Who taking it out of her tender hond, / The cup to ground did violently cast, / That all in peeces it was broken fond […]"
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:30:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The director chose the entire ____ of actors for the upcoming film.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor put a white ____ on his leg after he broke it in the game.