bake / ˈbāk

 

verb

 

1. to fully cook things by heating in an oven

Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the sweetest little bits of comfort food.

Sandra Lee, 1966-

 

2. to cause to dry by exposing to heat

The same heat that melts wax, bakes clay.

French Proverb

 

3. to make food by cooking in an oven, especially of sweet treats

Baking may be regarded as a science, but it’s the chemistry between the ingredients and the cook that gives desserts life. Baking is done out of love, to share with family and friends, to see them smile.

Anna Olson, 1968-

 

4. to be cooked in an oven

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.

Yiddish Proverb

 

5. to be made extremely hot

A rose lay open in full bloom

and, looking from my garden room,

I watched the sun-baked flower fill with rain.

from ‘Home: A Memoir of My Early Years’ by Julie Andrews, 1935-

 

noun

 

1. a social event during which a certain type of food is prepared and served

Brin [clam-chowder] up even incidentally, and all the innumerable factions of the clam bake regions raise their heads and begin to yammer.

Louis Pullig De Gouy, 1869-1947