Meaning & use
roast
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cook food, especially meat or vegetables, with dry heat in an oven or over a fire.
Grammar: Takes an object (roast a chicken) or none (the potatoes are roasting).
Patterns
- roast something
- roast in the oven
I will roast the chicken with lemon.
The vegetables roasted for forty minutes.
They roasted marshmallows over the campfire.
verbtransitiveinformal
To tease or mock someone in public, often playfully at an event.
Grammar: Takes an object: roast a friend.
Patterns
- roast someone
The comedians roasted the retiring manager.
Her friends roasted her for dancing badly.
He was roasted online for his tweet.
nouncountable or uncountable
A piece of meat cooked in an oven, or a meal built around it.
Grammar: Countable for a cut: a roast; uncountable for the dish: Sunday roast.
Patterns
- a roast of something
- Sunday roast
We had a roast of beef on Sunday.
Mom put the roast in at noon.
The pork roast fed eight people.
nouncountable
A comedy event where a guest of honor is humorously insulted.
Grammar: Used with at or of: a roast of the winner.
Patterns
- a roast of someone
The charity held a roast for the coach.
He survived his own roast with good humor.
The roast was funny but kind.
verbtransitive
To heat coffee beans, nuts or seeds until they dry and brown.
Grammar: Takes an object: roast coffee beans.
Patterns
- roast something
The shop roasts its own coffee beans.
Roast the almonds until golden.
They roasted chestnuts by the fire.
Word forms
| third person singular | roasts |
|---|---|
| past tense | roasted |
| past participle | roasted |
| -ing form | roasting |
| plural | roasts |
Common combinations
- roast chicken
- We ordered roast chicken for dinner.
- Sunday roast
- A Sunday roast is a British tradition.
- roast beef
- The sandwich had roast beef.
- slow-roast
- Slow-roast the lamb for hours.
- roast coffee
- They roast coffee in small batches.
- celebrity roast
- The celebrity roast aired on television.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bake
- Bake usually refers to bread, cakes and similar foods, while roast is for meat and vegetables.
- grill
- Grill uses direct heat from above or below, but roast uses surrounding oven heat.
- tease
- Tease is gentler and may be private, whereas a roast is a public show of insults.
- mock
- Mock can be cruel, while a roast is meant as friendly fun.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: roast or toast? roast or grill?
roast vs toast
Toast is browned bread or a drink raised to honor someone; roast is cooking meat or mocking someone.
roast vs grill
Grill uses direct heat; roast uses hot air in an oven.
Practice
At the party, the friends decided to ____ the birthday boy with funny jokes about him.
Choose one answer.
Roast also means to tease someone playfully in public. Bake, freeze and boil are only cooking verbs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “roast”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.