Library / English Dictionary

TOAST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Slices of bread that have been toasted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("toast" is a kind of...):

bread; breadstuff; staff of life (food made from dough of flour or meal and usually raised with yeast or baking powder and then baked)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "toast"):

cinnamon toast (buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon (and nutmeg and grated lemon peel))

orange toast (buttered toast with sugar and grated orange rind and a little orange juice)

Melba toast (very thin crisp brown toast)

Brussels biscuit; rusk; twice-baked bread; zwieback (slice of sweet raised bread baked again until it is brown and hard and crisp)

Derivation:

toast (make brown and crisp by heating)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A drink in honor of or to the health of a person or event

Synonyms:

pledge; toast

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("toast" is a kind of...):

drink (a single serving of a beverage)

Derivation:

toast (propose a toast to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person in desperate straits; someone doomed

Example:

one mistake and you're toast

Synonyms:

goner; toast

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("toast" is a kind of...):

desperate (a person who is frightened and in need of help)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A celebrity who receives much acclaim and attention

Example:

he was the toast of the town

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("toast" is a kind of...):

celebrity; famous person (a widely known person)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make brown and crisp by heating

Example:

crisp potatoes

Synonyms:

crisp; crispen; toast

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "toast" is one way to...):

heat; heat up (make hot or hotter)

Domain category:

cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

toast (slices of bread that have been toasted)

toaster (a kitchen appliance (usually electric) for toasting bread)

toasting (cooking to a brown crispiness over a fire or on a grill)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Propose a toast to

Example:

Let's drink to the New Year

Synonyms:

drink; pledge; salute; toast; wassail

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "toast" is one way to...):

honor; honour; reward (bestow honor or rewards upon)

"Toast" entails doing...:

booze; drink; fuddle; hit the bottle (consume alcohol)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "toast"):

give (propose)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

toast (a drink in honor of or to the health of a person or event)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Fanny, fatigued and fatigued again, was thankful to accept the first invitation of going to bed; and before Betsey had finished her cry at being allowed to sit up only one hour extraordinary in honour of sister, she was off, leaving all below in confusion and noise again; the boys begging for toasted cheese, her father calling out for his rum and water, and Rebecca never where she ought to be.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“Are they dead, ma'am?” I inquired, after drinking the toast in a wine-glass.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When no one could eat any more, the Professor proposed the first regular toast, which was always drunk at such times—Aunt March, God bless her!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Livesey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Two days later, having eaten an egg and two slices of toast and drunk a cup of tea, he asked for his mail, but found his eyes still hurt too much to permit him to read.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Old times crowded fast back on me as I watched her bustling about—setting out the tea-tray with her best china, cutting bread and butter, toasting a tea-cake, and, between whiles, giving little Robert or Jane an occasional tap or push, just as she used to give me in former days.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had been into the kitchen, she said, to hurry Sally and help make the toast, and spread the bread and butter, or she did not know when they should have got tea, and she was sure her sister must want something after her journey.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I said it was not a respectful way of proposing the toast, and I would never permit that toast to be drunk in my house otherwise than as “The Ladies!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Meg went back to toast her feet and read Ivanhoe, and Jo began to dig paths with great energy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He looked up, however, at my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a man who had done the same thing often, and took a good swig, with his favourite toast of “Here's luck!”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)