Meaning & use
baste
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitive
To spoon or brush juices or melted fat over food while it roasts so it stays moist.
Grammar: Takes an object: baste the turkey, often with a spoon or brush.
Patterns
- baste something with something
- baste something in something
Baste the chicken with its own juices every twenty minutes.
She basted the ham with a honey glaze.
He opened the oven to baste the roast and was hit by a wave of heat.
verbtransitivespecialist
To sew pieces of cloth together loosely with long temporary stitches before the final sewing.
Grammar: Takes an object: baste the hem.
Patterns
- baste something together
- baste something to something
Baste the two layers together before you use the machine.
She basted the sleeve to the jacket to check the fit.
Remove the basting stitches once the seam is sewn.
Word forms
| third person singular | bastes |
|---|---|
| past tense | basted |
| past participle | basted |
| -ing form | basting |
Common combinations
- baste with butter
- Baste the fish with butter as it cooks.
- baste the turkey
- We take turns to baste the turkey on Thanksgiving.
- baste occasionally
- Baste occasionally so the meat does not dry out.
- basting brush
- A silicone basting brush is easy to clean.
- baste a hem
- Baste the hem in place before pressing it.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: baste or paste? baste or based?
baste vs paste
Paste is a soft thick mixture or to stick something on, while baste is to moisten food or sew loosely.
baste vs based
Based is the past tense of base, as in based on facts; basted comes from baste.
Practice
To keep the roast from drying out, you should ___ it with its juices every so often.
Choose one answer.
Baste means spooning juices over cooking meat to keep it moist. The other words are similar in sound but do not describe this cooking step.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “baste”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.