A roast is an oven-cooked meal that's often savory and meaty. It can also be a funny way to tease someone.
When people talk about roasting food, they usually mean cooking it in a hot oven until it's tender and flavorful. For example, you might roast a chicken with some potatoes and carrots for dinner. But the word 'roast' is also used as a verb when we want to jokingly criticize or mock someone. Imagine your friend makes a silly joke at a party – their friends might "roast" them about it later by playfully teasing them about being goofy.
How common is "roast"?
Word roast is considered uncommon in modern English. It has a balanced usage among all categories: speech, fiction, newspapers and academic texts.
Definitions
noun
A cut of meat suited to roasting
A meal consisting of roast foods.
The degree to which something, especially coffee, is roasted.
Example: Dark roast means that the coffee bean has been roasted to a higher temperature and for a longer period of time than in light roast.
A comical event, originally fraternal, where a person is subjected to verbal attack, yet may be praised by sarcasm and jokes.
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verb
To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.
Example: to roast meat on a spit
To cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc.
Example: to roast a potato in ashes
To process by drying through exposure to sun or artificial heat
Example: Coffee beans need roasting before use.
To heat to excess; to heat violently; to burn.
To admonish someone vigorously
Example: I’m late home for the fourth time this week; my mate will really roast me this time.
To subject to bantering, severely criticize, sometimes as a comedy routine.
Example: The class clown enjoys being roasted by mates as well as staff.
To dissipate by heat the volatile parts of, as ores.
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adjective
Having been cooked by roasting.
Subjected to roasting, bantered, severely criticized.
