▪ I. bake, v.
(beɪk)
Forms: 1 bacan, 3–5 bake(n, 5 -yn, 6 baake, 7 baque, 4– bake. pa. tense 1–4 bóc, 4 booc, book, bakide, 5 boke, (6 Sc. buik, beuk,) 5– baked. pa. pple. 1 bacen, 2–7 baken, 4 baake, 4–5 bacun, ybake, ibake, 4–6 bake, 5 bakun, (6 Sc. backin, baikin, baykin, ybaik), 6 bakt, 6– baked.
[Common Teutonic: OE. bac-an = OHG. bach-an, pach-an, MHG. bachen, ON., Sw. baka, Da. bage; also, OHG. bacchan, MHG. and G. backen, MDu. backen, Du. bakken, OS. bakken. OTeut. ? *bak-an (perh., as Paul thinks, in present stem bakka-, by assimilation of a suffix, ? from bak-ná), cogn, w. Gr. ϕώγ-ειν to roast, parch, toast, pointing to an Aryan bhō̆g-. Originally a strong vb.; the str. pa. tense survived to c 1400, and is still used dialectally; the str. pa. pple. baken occurs five times in the Bible of 1611 as against two examples of baked, and is still in reg. use in the north. The weak pa. tense baked appeared before 1400; the weak pa. pple. in 16th c., and is alone found in Shakespeare.]
1. a. trans. To cook by dry heat acting by conduction, and not by radiation, hence either in a closed place (oven, ashes, etc.), or on a heated surface (bakestone, griddle, live coals); primarily used of preparing bread, then of potatoes, apples, the flesh of animals. (Thus, in the primary sense, distinguished from roast: but in transferred uses they are not sharply separated.) Often absol.
| c 1000 ælfric Ex. xii. 39 H{iacu} bócon þæt melu. ― Lev. xxvi. 26 Fif bacaþ on ánum ofene. c 1200 Ormin 992 Bull⁓tedd bræd þatt bakenn wass in ofne. 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. xxviii. 24 She..boke [booc, boc] therf looves. 1388 ― Isa. xliv. 15 He brente and bakide looues. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 208 A capon in that one was bake. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxvii. (1495) 643 Some brede is bake vnder asshen. 1513 Douglas æneis i. iv. 40 The cornes..Thai grand, and syne buik at the fire. 1530 Palsgr. 442/1, I baake a batche of breed in an oven..Have you baken your breed yet. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 101, I wash, ring, brew, bake, scowre..make the beds, and doe all my selfe. 1611 Bible Lev. vi. 17 It shall not be baken with leauen. ― Isa. xliv. 19, I haue baked bread vpon the coales. 1768 Smollett Humph. Cl. Let. 8 June, My bread is..baked in my own oven. 1836 Dickens Pickw. xlv, We have half a leg of mutton, baked, at a quarter before three. 1855 E. Acton Mod. Cookery ii. 55 To bake fish, a gentle oven may be used. |
b. fig. To ripen with heat.
| 1697 Dryden Virg., Georg. ii. 754 The Vine her liquid Harvest yields, Bak'd in the Sun-shine. |
† c. fig. To prepare, make ready. Obs.
| 1460 in Pol. R. & L. Poems (1866) 194 Whan þou doest thus, there bale þou bakeste. |
2. trans. To harden by heat: a. in a (brick) kiln.
| 1388 Wyclif Gen. xi. 3 Make we tiel stonys, and bake we tho with fier. 1868 J. Marryat Pottery Gloss. s.v. Kiln, The furnaces employed to fire or bake pottery. |
b. as the sun hardens the ground.
| 1697 Dryden Virg., Georg. iv. 618 The Sun..bak'd the Mud. 1821 Byron Heav. & Earth iii. 189 When the hot sun hath baked the reeking soil Into a world. |
3. To harden as frost does.
| 1572 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 52 b, The cold of the Winter doth bake and season the ground. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 256 Th' earth When it is bak'd with frost. |
† 4. To form into a cake or mass; to cake. Obs.
| c 1460 Bk. Curtasye in Babees Bk. (1868) 303 An apys mow men sayne he makes, Þat brede and flesshe in hys cheke bakes. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 89 That very Mab that..bakes the Elk-locks in foule sluttish haires. a 1631 Donne Serm. xii. 117 The old dirt is still baked on my hands. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. i. 8 If the root of the Tongue and the Windpipe, have any glutinous stuff baked to them. |
5. intr. (for refl.) a. To undergo the process of baking; to become firm or hard with heat. Of land.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 13 Fillet of a Fenny Snake, In the Cauldron boyle and bake. 1755 in Johnson. 1850 N. Kingsley Diary 12 Feb. (1914) 109 The soil looks as if it would bake hard. 1869 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. 357 When the proportions of clay and sand are such that the soil will not bake,..it may properly be called loam. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xxxiii. 710 The land is never water-soaked, never ‘bakes’, and I never saw a clod as big as my fist. 1876 Green Short Hist. i. §5 The cakes which were baking on the hearth. Mod. These apples do not bake well. How the London Clay bakes in the sun! |
b. To be made uncomfortably hot (by the sun, a fire, etc.). colloq.
| 1937 M. Sharp Nutmeg Tree x. 123 ‘I'm going to bake,’ thought Julia..and indeed the plain..shimmered under a heat mist. |
6. Phrases and proverbs: to bake one's bread: to ‘do for’ one. as they brew, so let them bake: as they begin, so let them proceed. only half-baked: (colloq.) deficient in sense; half-witted.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 577 For euere my bred had be bake{revsc} myn lyf dawes had be tynt. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (1841) 82 Euen as they brew, so let them bake. 1675 Cotton Scoff. Scoft 150, I should do very imprudently..Either to meddle or to make: But as they brew, so let 'um bake. 1864 N. & Q. Ser. iii. VI. 494/2 He is only half-baked, put in with the bread and taken out with the cakes. |
7. Comb., in which bake, in sense of vbl. n. baking, is used attrib., as bake-kettle, bake-oven, bake-pan, bake-shop; bake office dial., (a) = bakehouse; (b) a baker's shop (Eng. Dial. Dict.). Also bake-board, -house, -stone, bak-bred, q.v.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. (Zup.) 316 Pistrinum, bæcern. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 529 Bake them vnder a bake-pan of earth. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xxxv. 133 Tin bake-pans and other notions. 1874 in Thirsk & Imray Suff. Farming 19th Cent. (1958) 121 Bake office common to the 3 tenements. 1880 N. H. Bishop Sneak-Box 317, I..built a fire in my bake-kettle. 1883 Harper's Mag. Mar. 504/2 A few old men trudge about their bake-ovens. 1872 Mark Twain Innoc. Abr. xxxi. 240 There are the bake-shops. |
▸ bake sale n. orig. N. Amer. a sale of donated (and usually home-made) baked goods, held as a fundraising event.
| 1902 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 21 Sept. 14/2 The ladies of the Baptist Church held a *bake sale. 1949 N. Jones For Goodness' Sake 60 You then speak of the Bake Sale the previous Saturday and grow lyrical about the home-made bread offered there. 2006 Luton Today (Nexis) 24 Mar. There were cakes galore at Ashton Middle School when it held a bake sale in aid of charity. |
▪ II. bake, n.
[f. the vb.]
1. in Sc. A biscuit.
| 1787 Burns Holy Fair xviii, Here's crying out for bakes and gills. 1823 Galt Entail xciii, We can divide the bakes. |
2. a. ‘The act, process, or result, of baking.’ (Webster.)
| 1565 T. Cooper Thes., Acapna thysia, sacrifices without smoke: spoken of a simple feaste wherin is neyther bake, sodde, nor roste. 1851 Knickerbocker XXXVIII. 187 Saint Peter [in stained glass] is a little cracked..but I've got a first-rate bake on Paul. 1882 Lees & Clutterbuck Three in Norway xvi. 126 After this Esau finished the oven, and accomplished a bake of bread therein. 1961 Guardian 27 Sept. 8/3 Many older housewives..find great satisfaction in a monster weekly ‘bake’. 1963 Listener 21 Mar. 535/3 For apple and pork bake you will need..4 pork chops. |
b. A social gathering at which a meal, esp. of baked food, is served; a clambake. U.S.
| 1846 Spirit of Times (N.Y.) 6 June 174/3 The grand ‘bake’ at the village hotel. 1935 Steinbeck Tortilla Flat viii. 148 He saw that it was a Girl Scout wienie bake. |
▪ III. bake
earlier form of baken ppl. a.