toast Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun slices of bread that have been toasted
  2. noun a celebrity who receives much acclaim and attention
    • he was the toast of the town
  3. noun a person in desperate straits; someone doomed
    goner.
    • I'm a goner if this plan doesn't work
    • one mistake and you're toast
  4. noun a drink in honor of or to the health of a person or event
    pledge.
  5. verb make brown and crisp by heating
    crispen; crisp.
    • toast bread
    • crisp potatoes
  6. verb propose a toast to
    drink; wassail; pledge; salute.
    • Let us toast the birthday girl!
    • Let's drink to the New Year

WordNet

Toast transitive verb
Etymology
OF. toster to roast, toast, fr. L. torrere, tostum, to parch, roast. See Torrid.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Toasted ; present participle & verbal noun Toasting
Definitions
  1. To dry and brown by the heat of a fire; as, to toast bread.
  2. To warm thoroughly; as, to toast the feet.
  3. To name when a health is proposed to be drunk; to drink to the health, or in honor, of; as, to toast a lady.
Toast noun
Etymology
OF. toste, or tostée, toasted bread. See Toast, v.
Definitions
  1. Bread dried and browned before a fire, usually in slices; also, a kind of food prepared by putting slices of toasted bread into milk, gravy, etc. now usu. prepared in an electrical toaster. See toaster.
    My sober evening let the tankard bless, With toast embrowned, and fragrant nutmeg fraught. T. Warton.
  2. A lady in honor of whom persons or a company are invited to drink; -- so called because toasts were formerly put into the liquor, as a great delicacy.
    It now came to the time of Mr. Jones to give a toast . . . who could not refrain from mentioning his dear Sophia. Fielding.
  3. Hence, any person, especially a person of distinction, in honor of whom a health is drunk; hence, also, anything so commemorated; a sentiment, as "The land we live in," "The day we celebrate," etc.

Webster 1913