bake

present singular third person bakes · participle present baking · past baked · dialectal past book · participle past baked · dialectal participle past book · dialectal participle past baken

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

      He baked her a cake.

      2 more examples

      I baked a delicious cherry pie.

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

   2. intransitiveTo be cooked in an oven.

      The cake baked at 350°F.

   3. intransitiveTo regularly prepare baked goods.

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

   4. figurativelyintransitiveslangTo smoke marijuana.

      (Let's bake tonight.)

   5. figurativelyTo incorporate into something greater.

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

      2014, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security, Airline Industry Consolidation: Hearing, page 36

      1 more example

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

      2016, David B. Woolner, John M. Thompson, Progressivism in America: Past, Present and Future, page 100

2. To heat or dry.
   1. intransitiveTo be warmed for drying and hardening.

      The clay baked in the sun.

      Synonyms: fire

   2. transitiveTo dry by heat.

      They baked the electrical parts lightly to remove moisture.

   3. figurativelyintransitiveTo be hot.

      It is baking in the greenhouse.

      1 more example

      I'm baking after that workout in the gym.

   4. figurativelytransitiveTo cause to be hot.

      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.

      2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 112

3. broadlyobsoletetransitiveTo harden by cold.

   The earth […] is baked with frost.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   1 more example

   They bake their sides vppon the cold, hard stone.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9

4. transitivecomputer graphicsTo fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.

plural bakes

1. The act of cooking food by baking.

   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.

   2015, Patricia Grace, Chappy, →ISBN

2. AustraliaNew ZealandUKespeciallyAny of various baked dishes resembling casserole.

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

   2009, Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z, →ISBN

   1 more example

   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.

   2009, Rosalind Peters, Kate Pankhurst, Clive Boursnell, Midnight Feast Magic: Sleepover Fun and Food

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

   bake pan

   2 more examples

   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!

   2016, Annie Rigg, Great British Bake Off: Children's Party Cakes & Bakes

   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.

   2024 May 24, The Press and Journal, Inverness, page 28, column 2

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

   an oyster bake on the shore

   3 more examples

   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; […]

   1904, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology

   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.

   1939, The American Photo-engraver, volume 31, page 289

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

   2006, Jeffery P. Sandman, Peter R. Sandman, Soaring and Gliding: The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Area

5. BarbadosUKUSsometimesA 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).

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:bake.