Definition
verbTo cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.
verbTo cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc.
Sentence Examples
We all pigged out at the company Christmas party, especially on the roast beef.
Roast beef is usually accompanied by Yorkshire pudding.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hrews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rosterje (“to roast”), Dutch roosten, roosteren (“to roast”), German rösten (“to roast”).
Displaced native Middle English breden, bræden (“to roast”), from Old English brǣdan, related to German braten (“to roast, grill”).
The noun is from Middle English roste, from Old French rost, roste, from the verb.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In eggs boiled and roasted […]there is scarce difference to be discerned."
— 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
"roasted in wrath and fire"
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
"“He ain’t no good!” With this she steps back to the table where Miss Montague has just tired of the Cuban, slips her arms about that seraph’s waist, and says: “Your Frank is in Washington and my Jasper has just given me a roast. Reckon we’ll both have to be bachelor girls to-night.”"
— 1899, Archibald Clavering Gunter, M.S. Bradford, Special, page 58: