▪ I. roast, n.
(rəʊst)
Forms: 4–7 roste, rost, 4–6 roost, 5–6 Sc. roist, 6– roast.
[In sense 1, a. OF. rost masc. (mod.F. rôt: cf. Prov. raust, Catal. rost, It. arrosto) or roste fem., roasting, roast meat, vbl. n. from rostir roast v. In sense 2, a subst. use of the pa. pple. of roast v. In other senses mainly from the verbal stem.]
1. a. A piece of roast meat, or anything that is roasted for food; a part of an animal prepared or intended for roasting.
| c 1330 Amis & Amil. 1235 Certes, it were michel vnright To make a roste of leuedis bright. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 108 Wiþ good wyn of Gaskoyne..þe rost [v.r. roste] to defye. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 43 Þenne take þy rost, and sklyce hit clene. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 81 Schir Kay ruschit to the roist, and reft fra the swane. 1575 Gamm. Gurton ii. Song, I love no rost, but a nut brown toste And a crab layde in the fyre. 1591 Florio 2nd Fruites 55 Make roome for the second messe, now comes the roste. a 1635 Corbet Poems (1807) 36 Since you eat his roast, It argues want of manners To raile upon the host. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 198 The very entrayles must be washed and put into the roast. 1763 Smollett Trav. (1766) I. v. 67 The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly..a roast, with a sallad, for supper. 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 91 Keep a small roast or two for family use. 1886 Pascoe London of To-day 48 That dinner consists of..vegetables, roasts, sweets, with dessert. |
b. Phr. to rule the roast, to have full sway or authority; to be master. Hence ruler of the roast.
In very common use from c 1530 onwards, but none of the early examples throw any light on the precise origin of the expression.
| (a) 14.. Carpenter's Tools 176 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 85 What so euer ȝe brage ore boste, My mayster ȝet shall reule the roste. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 805 Cra. Con. In fayth, I rule moche of the rost. Clo. Col. Rule the roste! thou woldest, ye. 1559 T. Bryce in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) I. 175 When shall trew dealing rule the roste With those that bye and sell? 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 23/1 These were Irish potentates, and before their discomfiture they ruled the rost. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) 117 In cholerick bodies, fire doth govern moste; In sanguine, aire doth chiefly rule the rost. 1659 T. Pecke Parnassi Puerp. 46 He rules the Rost, by Night; She rules the Daies. 1708 Prior Turtle & Sparrow 334, I never strove to rule the roast. 1778 Foote Trip Calais ii, The ladies always rule the roast in this part of the world. 1820 Combe Syntax, Wife iii. 276 This is the toast, Which in this place must rule the roast. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! x, He had it all his own way, and ruled the roast..right royally. 1876 Gd. Words 788 The sensual appetite rules the roast, and proclaims its determination to be gratified at all costs. |
| (b) 1563 Homilies ii. Idolatry iii. (1859) 248 For..Governours, you have the Romans, the rulers of the rost (as they say). 1581 J. Bell Haddon's answ. Osor. 67 b, If you..will notwithstanding be accompted a ruler of the Roast in Divinitie. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 6 This Ruler of the Roast has so little Christian Honesty. 1898 L. Villari Machiavelli 35 The lowest men..became ‘rulers of the roast’. |
c. In various figurative or allusive expressions.
In the earlier of these the precise sense is not clear.
| 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 27 Ramowd rebald, thow fall doun att the roist, My laureat lettres at the and I lowis. c 1550 Lyndesay Trag. Cardinal 372 Of rycht religious men..Bot not to rebaldis new cum frome the roste. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 114 Oft times they buy the rost ful deare, It smelleth of the smoke. 1587 Mirr. Mag., Sir Nicholas Burdet (1610) 488 Though full oft we made the French men smell of the rost, Yet in the end we gaine of fight the fame. 1596 P. Colse Penelope (1880) 167 Wel let him heed amidst his ioy, Lest Menelaus marre his roast. 1670 G. H. tr. Hist. Cardinals ii. i. 121 Not caring who have the smoak, whilst they themselves run away with the roast. 1680 Cotton Compl. Gamester (ed. 2) 13 Under the notion of being very merry with coine and good cheer, they will make him pay for the roast. |
† d. transf. A company, troop. Obs. (Cf. boiling vbl. n. 4.)
| 1608 T. James Apol. Wyclif G iv b, The whole host and rost of Moonks and Friars beganne to praie. |
2. a. Roast meat; roast beef.
| c 1375 Cursor M. 13373 (Fairf.), Þat folk þat day fulle faire was fed wiþ soiþen & roste & wilde bred. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 221 Us wanted nowther baken ne roste. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 78 The tane lufis soddyn, the tothir rost. 1535 Coverdale Isaiah xliv. 16 He rosteth flesh, that he maye eate roste his bely full. 1566 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 489 Being servit with bruise, beif, muttoun, and rost at the leist. 1600 Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood iii. 9 Not that hee'le cloy him there with rost or sod. 1611 Bible Isaiah xliv. 16 He eateth flesh: he rosteth rost, and is satisfied. 1700 Dryden Cock & Fox 36 On holy days an egg, or two at most; But her ambition never reach'd to roast. 1717 Lady Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar, Their sauces are very high, all the roast very much done. 1834 Syd. Smith Lett. cccxl, Tory and Whig in turns shall be my host, I taste no politics in boil'd and roast. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Aristocracy, [He] should have as much boiled and roast as he could carry on a long dagger. |
b. In figurative or allusive expressions; † in early use esp. cold roast in depreciatory sense.
| c 1400 Tourn. Tottenham 136 ‘I make a vow’, quoth Perkyn, ‘thow speks of cold rost’. c 1460 Towneley Myst. ii. 421 Yey, cold rost is at my masteres hame. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 266 b, A beggerie litle toune of cold roste in the mountaignes of Savoye. a 1591 H. Smith Serm. (1866) II. 57 Great boast and small roast makes unsavoury mouths. 1634 F. Lenton Inns of Crt. Anagr. D, To yourselfe, or others, when they boast Of dainty cates and afterwards cry roast. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Scarlet Gown 84 To speak without passion, there was much boast, but little rost. 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 35 (1713) I. 228 There, I think I come over you with a stroak of Roast. 1760 Foote Minor Introd., I tell thee the plain roast and boil'd of the theatres will never do at this table. We must have high seasoned ragouts and rich sauces. |
3. An operation of roasting (metal, coffee, etc.), or the result of this.
In quot. 1582 prob. after G. rost.
| 1582 in Trans. Jewish Hist. Soc. (1903) IV. 94 In which rostes both of vitriall, Copper and Coppris makeinge, he will use nothing but peate. |
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 398 A dead roast, as it is called, or the elimination of that portion of sulphur which, after oxidation, remains combined as sulphate of copper, is to be avoided. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 113/1 In Britain large roasts [of coffee] are the rule. 1883 Science I. 105/1 Too much to allow the temperature to be kept sufficiently high to obtain a complete roast. |
4. The process of bantering unmercifully. Also, an instance of this. (See also quot. 1900.) Now chiefly N. Amer.
| 1740 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 74 The Knight bore the roast with great fortitude. 1754 J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) I. 190 David Gam, Esq., was a proper subject for a Roast. 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3) s.v., He stood the roast, he was the butt. 1817 Lintoun Green 27 He had been jockeyed to his cost,..Which made him suffer many a roast. 1900 Dialect Notes II. 54 Roast, n. 1. Unfair treatment, as hard making in a course. 2. A partial decision, as from an umpire. 3. A severe criticism. 4. A reproof. 1903 Booklovers Mag. Dec. 663/1 This national love for a good ‘roast’, this spirit of mockery, this national habit of joking, is the one great thing about us that foreigners can't understand. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Feb. 16/1 (caption) It was billed as a roast to mark Mr. Sniderman's 25th year in the music business, but in reality it was a heart-warming evening because the roasters had only kind words for this beloved couple, who've done so much for Canada. |
5. attrib., as roast-cook; roast-bitter, a bitter principle contained in the crust of baked bread; roast-post [ad. G. rostpost], a quantity of ore prepared for roasting, a rosting-charge; roast-stall, a form of roasting-furnace (Cent. Dict.).
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1122 The heap..must be then well mixed, and formed into small bings, called roast-posts. 1856 Orr's Circle Sci., Pract. Chem. 343 This peculiar bitter prinicple is called ‘roast-bitter’, or ‘Assamar’. Ibid. 344 The roast-bitter, produced by baking in the crust of bread, originates in all farinaceous food in the same way. 1896 Daily News 11 Dec. 12/7 Man wants situation as roast cook, chef's assistant, or carver. |
▪ II. roast, v.
(rəʊst)
Forms: 3–4 rosti, 5–6 rosty; 4–6 roste, 5–7 rost; 5–6 rooste, 6– roast. Also pa. tense 5 roste; pa. pple. 4 i-rost(e, 5 rosste, roste, 6 roost, Sc. rostin.
[ad. OF. rostir (mod.F. rôtir), = Prov. raustir, Catal. rostir, It. arrostire, of Teutonic origin: cf. OHG. rôsten (MHG. rœsten, G. rösten; Du. roosten), f. rôst masc., rôste fem., gridiron, grill.]
1. a. trans. To make (flesh or other food) ready for eating by prolonged exposure to heat at or before a fire.
Also freq. in mod. use, to cook (meat) in an oven, for which the more original term is bake.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 4214 Þis grisliche geant..adde an vatte baru ynome,..And rostede in þis grete fur. Ibid. 4920 + 112 [To] þe kyng he broȝte yt wel yrosted [v.r. i-roste] vor veneson newe. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 12342 By a mykel fir he sat, Rostyng a swyn. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 165 Whan þe flesche is aweye i-sode and nouȝt i-rosted. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 16 Do opon a broche, rost hom bydene A lytel. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1822 Vnto a place whare þai suld ete, Þai come and roste þair fysch to mete. 1530 Palsgr. 694/1, I wyll roste my pygges or ever I spytte my capons. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 25 That day of an auncient custome there is roosted a whole Oxe. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 385 They eat like parcht Pigs if you roast them. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 67 Nor [do thou] rost red Crabs t'offend the niceness of their Nose. 1732 Pope Ep. Cobham 219 Lucullus..Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. l. V. 189 Forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feasts. 1853 A. Soyer Pantroph. 124 These goats were roasted and..it was decided that this dish was very tolerable. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. x. 230 When they are once roasted, it can make no difference who eats them. |
| fig. 1522 Skelton Why not to Court? 109 Pescoddes they may shyll, Or elles go rost a stone. 1562 Heywood Prov. & Epigr. Wks. (1598) F 2 b, I doe but roste a stone In warming her. 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 14 Come in Taylor, here you may rost your Goose. |
| transf. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 483 Roasted in wrath and fire,..With eyes like Carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Old Grandsire Priam seekes. 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting 128 After being roasted in the sun, till I thought I must have had brain fever. |
b. techn. To expose (metallic ores, etc.) to protracted heat in a furnace, in order to remove impurities or reduce to a more tractable condition; to calcine. (See also quot. 1898.)
In quot. 1582 prob. after G. rösten.
| 1582 in Trans. Jewish Hist. Soc. (1903) IV. 94 After he hath rosted and smolten iij or iiij saies of our copper ure. 1741 Cramer Ass. Metal 189 Bodies refractory in the Fire, are more easily roasted. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 145 This operation is called Roasting an Ore. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 484 Roast the sulphate, that it may be the more easily reduced to a very fine powder. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 402 Clay roasted with lime gave..about twice as much potash..as that roasted without lime. 1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iii. 4/1 The ore is first roasted, and then finely broken up. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. xxxv. 549 The soil had better be turned over with the plough, or roasted with grass fires. |
c. To expose (coffee beans) to heat in order to prepare for grinding.
| 1724 Abstract Act in Lond. Gaz. No. 6270/9 Dealers..in Coffee may..Roast their Berries at such Roasting-Houses. 1728–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Coffee, The ordinary method of roasting coffee among us, is in a tin cylindrical box, full of holes... The spit turns swift, and so roasts the berries. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 322/2 Much more depends upon the manner of roasting and making the coffee, than upon the quality of the bean. 1855 J. W. Croker in C. Papers (1884) III. 327 The men-of-war..could have in a week roasted and ground coffee enough to have served the army for a year. |
2. To torture by exposure to flame or heat.
| c 1290 St. Christopher 199 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 277 Þe king het a-non þat Men him scholden..with strong fuyr and pich rosti. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxii. (Laurence) 484 Þai..ware forwondryt þane, þat he gert sa rost a quyk man. 1508 Dunbar Flyting 123 He that rostit Lawarance had thy grunȝe. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xxix. 22 Sedechias & Achab, whom the kinge of Babilon rosted in the fyre. [1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. v. 287 Ane Witch they fand, rosting at the fyre..ye kingis image artificiallie wrochte in wax.] 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 279 Blow me about in windes, roast me in Sulphure, Wash me in steepe-downe gulfes of Liquid fire. 1781 Cowper Convers. 334 You stir the fire and strive To make a blaze—that's roasting him alive. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xviii, There is the learned Doctor Griddle, who suffered in Henry VIII.'s time, and Archbishop Bush who roasted him. 1899 Westm. Gaz. Dec. 6/3 They carried the wretched negro to the outskirts of the town,..and then roasted him to death. |
3. To warm (oneself or one's limbs) at a very hot fire.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 144 To sitten..by the hote coles,..Reste hym, and roste hym. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 250 And so sitteth downe by his fire, and vpon the hard ground, rosteth as it were his wearie sides thus daintily stuffed. 1789 Burns Ep. to J. Tennant 21, I pray an' ponder butt the house; My shins, my lane, I there sit roastin'. |
4. colloq. or slang. † a. (See quot.) Obs.—0
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Roasted, arrested. I'll Roast the Dab, I will Arrest the Rascal. |
b. To ridicule, banter, jest at, quiz (a person), in a severe or merciless fashion. Also, to criticize, to denounce.
| 1710 Let. to Noble Lord occasion'd by Proc. against Dr. Henry Sacheverell 16 As for Dr. Sacheverell, nothing will serve some of 'em but Roasting him; using the Expression of a Furious Zealot against him, who is since Dead. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 173 Having converted the Mercury to a Brander, who might, without any great difficulty, have roasted this insolent Frenchman. 1754 J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) I. 191 Expecting much diversion from roasting the 'squire. 1782 E. N. Blower Geo. Bateman II. 130 The Deputy and I shall roast Mr. Skipslick. 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 168 On our return to dinner,..it may be easily supposed, the Beau was well roasted. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xvi. ix. (1872) VI. 236 He thrice..ran away from the King, feeling bantered and roasted to a merciless degree. 1890 in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 183/1 Another letter received from one W. T. Nelson, of Cleveland, severely roasts both. 1895 W. C. Gore in Inlander Dec. 114 Roast, v. 1. To censure. 2. To ridicule. 1905 ‘H. McHugh’ You can search Me iii. 50 If he were to roast our Skinski it might hurt our business. 1912 J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict., Roast, to expose, to abuse, to rate, to tell a person off. A roasting, a severe rating or castigation in a speech. 1920 Wodehouse Jill the Reckless (1922) xviii. 267 I've an idea..that the critics will roast it. 1966 Listener 27 Oct. 613/3 Their methods caused a scandal and they were roasted in the press by Labouchère. 1976 F. Trueman Ball of Fire ii. 39 They made me twelfth man and I was roasted for falling asleep in a deck-chair during play. 1977 Times 28 Oct. 8/5 During the evening the Prince was ‘roasted’ by Martin—a friendly American custom of insulting a person as a sign of favour. |
c. (See quot.)
| 1888 Pall Mall G. 24 Feb. 2/1 There are few among the thousand experts that he employs that can ‘roast’ him, as they call it—that is, click off a message too fast for him to follow it. |
5. absol. To perform, carry on, the process of roasting.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 383 He koude rooste, and sethe, and boille, and frye. 1727 Philip Quarll (1816) 13 Another fire⁓place, made of three stones, fit to roast at. c 1860 My Receipt Bk. (ed. 2) 62 Rub the liver over the breast, roast at a very quick fire. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 445, I have had no difficulty in teaching men how to roast. |
6. intr. To undergo the process of being cooked, tortured, or calcined by exposure to fire or heat. Also transf. (quot. 1719).
| a 1300 Leg. Rood (1871) 58 Vp a gredire hi leide him seþþe,..To rosti as me deþ verst flesc. a 1400 Sir Perc. 794 He..Keste hym reghte in the fyre..: ‘Ly stille therin now and roste’. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 15 Þan putte it on a Spete round, an lete hem rosty. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 32 b, And so sayd saynt Laurence whan he laye rostynge on the yren crate. a 1529 Skelton P. Sparowe 1333 By..all the dedly names Of infernall posty, Where soules frye and rosty. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies ii. vii. 98 When the fire is moderate, and the meat in an equall distance, we see that it rostes hansomely. 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. 279 Care must be taken to water all your Plants largely, or else they will roast and scorch. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 634 When roasting in Phalaris's bull,..the pain would instantly vanish. 1819 Shelley Cycl. 396 Then [he] peeled his flesh with a great cooking-knife And put him down to roast. 1839 H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornw., etc. 595 note, The process..is to take 400 grains..and place it in a crucible to roast in an air-furnace. |
▪ III. roast, ppl. a.
(rəʊst)
[Obs. pa. pple. of roast v. Cf. roast n. 2.]
Roasted, prepared by roasting. See also roast beef, roast meat.
| 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 175 Þe comon of þe oste bouht þam hors flesch, Or mules or assis roste. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiii. 57 Þai broȝt him parte of a roste fisch. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 662 Caro assota, rost flesche. 1510 in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII. 172 The secund covrse. Creme off almonds, Rost coney, plouers. 1622 Relat. Plantation Plymouth, New Eng. 47 They..fell to eating a-fresh, and retained sufficient readie rost for all our break⁓fasts. 1819 Shelley Cycl. 310 Feasting on a roast calf. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre iii, ‘I could fancy a Welsh rabbit for supper’. ‘So could I—with a roast onion.’ 1878 Emerson Misc. Papers, Sov. Ethics Wks. (Bohn) III. 377 We need not always be stipulating for our clean shirt and roast-joint. |