bake — English Dictionary

bake
Pronunciations (5)
  • /beɪk/
    Pronunciation notes
    • General-American
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /bæɪk/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
    • New-Zealand
  • /bek/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Scotland
  • /beːk/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Wales
  • beɪk

Verb

  1. To cook using an oven, especially baked goods. To cook (something) in an oven (for someone).

    Usage
    • Ditransitive
    • Intransitive
    • Transitive
    • with person as subject
    Examples

    I baked a delicious cherry pie.

    She's been baking all day to prepare for the dinner.

    More examples (1)

    He baked her a cake.

  2. To cook using an oven, especially baked goods. To be cooked in an oven.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • with baked thing as subject
    Examples

    The cake baked at 350°F.

  3. To cook using an oven, especially baked goods. To regularly prepare baked goods.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    In some cultures, it is expected that a proper housewife should bake.

  4. To cook using an oven, especially baked goods. To smoke marijuana.

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • Intransitive
    • Slang
    Examples

    (Let's bake tonight.)

  5. To cook using an oven, especially baked goods. To incorporate into something greater.

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • with "in" or "into"
    Examples

    Disagreements between pilots' unions are baked into the merger cake.

    Many of the causes of governmental dysfunction are simply baked into the cake of American politics and will never change.

  6. To heat or dry. To be warmed for drying and hardening.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Synonyms
    Examples

    The clay baked in the sun.

  7. To heat or dry. To dry by heat.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    They baked the electrical parts lightly to remove moisture.

  8. To heat or dry. To be hot.

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    It is baking in the greenhouse.

    I'm baking after that workout in the gym.

  9. To heat or dry. To cause to be hot.

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • Transitive
    Examples

    My dad told me about his days in the Navy: He'd agreed to be a guinea pig in exchange for a shorter enlistment. […] They baked him in the sun.

  10. To harden by cold.

    Usage
    • broadly
    • Obsolete
    • Transitive
    Examples

    The earth […] is baked with frost.

    They bake their sides vppon the cold, hard stone.

  11. To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.

    Usage
    • Transitive

Noun

  1. The act of cooking food by baking.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Taking one of her cakes or a tray of biscuits from the oven always gives her satisfaction and a moment of pride; that is, of course, unless there happens to be some little element that doesn't please her with the bake.

  2. Any of various baked dishes resembling casserole.

    Usage
    • Australia
    • New-Zealand
    • UK usage
    • especially
    Examples

    A fish bake made with cod chunks, sliced parboiled potatoes, […]

    More examples (1)

    If you happen to have small, heat-proof glass or ceramic pots in your kitchen (known as ramekins) then you can make this very easy pasta bake in fun-size, individual portions.

  3. Any food item that is baked, such as a pastry.

    Examples

    bake pan

    More examples (1)

    Baking parchment should not be confused with greaseproof paper — the former has a non-stick coating and will ensure that your bakes lift out of the tin or off the baking sheets easily, the latter will have the opposite effect!

    Traditionally made with flour, salt, yeast and a large amount of fat or lard, it is claimed that the beloved bake has fallen out of favour with younger people.

  4. A social event at which food (such as seafood) is baked, or at which baked food is served.

    Usage
    • US usage
    Examples

    an oyster bake on the shore

    The central episode is the temporary burial of the novitiate; a shallow pit is excavated, and in this a fire is made, as for a fish bake; […]

    More examples (2)

    I am about to launch a scheme for our local to invest a few dollars in a spot where the boys will know where to find company and pass a few hours or a week-end out in the fresh air and partake of shrimp bakes or fish fries and so forget the on-creeping years.

    […] also featured a fish bake, a dance, and a beach party[.]

  5. A small, flat (or ball-shaped) cake of dough eaten mainly in Barbados, similar in appearance and ingredients to a pancake but fried (or sometimes roasted).

    Usage
    • Barbados
    • UK usage
    • US usage
    • sometimes
    Examples

    For quotations using this term, see Citations:bake.

Verb

  1. cook and make edible by putting in a hot oven

    Broader terms
    Examples

    bake the potatoes

  2. prepare with dry heat in an oven

    Examples

    bake a cake

  3. heat by a natural force

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The sun broils the valley in the summer

  4. be very hot, due to hot weather or exposure to the sun

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The town was broiling in the sun

    the tourists were baking in the heat

Word forms
bakesbakingbakedbookbakedbookbakenbakes

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