# bake

Pronunciation: say "BAYK" /beɪk/

## Verb

1. To cook something in an oven, often for another person.
   - Simple: To cook food like bread or cake using an oven.
   - _Every morning the shop bakes fresh loaves for the neighborhood._
   - _They bake together whenever the grandchildren visit._
2. To become cooked through exposure to the dry heat of an oven.
   - Simple: To become cooked while inside a hot oven.
   - _The pie needs to bake for forty minutes._
   - _Muffins bake more quickly than dense loaves._
5. To dry something out by exposing it to strong heat.
   - Simple: To dry something out by heating it.
   - _Weeks of drought baked the fields into cracked, dusty ground._
   - _Potters bake the molded clay to remove every trace of moisture._
6. To feel oppressively hot, as if cooking in the surrounding heat.
   - Simple: To feel extremely hot, as in strong sunshine.
   - _We baked in the stadium under the midday sun._
   - _Commuters bake on the platform whenever the air conditioning fails._
9. To make something hot, as if cooking it with intense heat.
   - Simple: To make something very hot.
   - _The relentless sun baked the clay courts into a hard crust._
   - _Engine heat can bake the components nearest the manifold._
10. To make something a fixed, built-in part of a larger system or whole.
   - Simple: To make something a fixed part of a bigger thing.
   - _The designers baked accessibility into the app from the very start._
   - _Companies that bake ethics into their culture tend to keep employees longer._
11. To consume marijuana by smoking it. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To smoke marijuana.
   - _The roommates would bake every Friday night._
   - _He baked with his friends before the concert._
12. To become dry and hard as a result of being warmed by heat.
   - Simple: To dry out and grow hard from heat.
   - _The molded bricks bake for days before they are ready to use._
   - _Pottery left in the kiln bakes until it sets into a rigid form._
13. To fix lighting, reflections, and similar effects into an object's texture so it renders more efficiently.
   - Simple: To save lighting and shadows into an object's surface so the computer can show it faster.
   - _The studio baked the scene's reflections into the textures to boost frame rates._
   - _Developers often bake static lighting into level geometry before shipping a build._

## Noun

3. The activity of cooking food in an oven.
   - Simple: The act of cooking food in an oven.
   - _The weekly bake produced dozens of loaves for the market._
   - _After a long bake, the kitchen smelled of fresh bread._
4. A food item produced by baking, such as a pastry or other oven-cooked treat.
   - Simple: A food made by cooking it in an oven, like a pastry.
   - _The café displays its bakes in a glass case each morning._
   - _He picked the largest bake on the counter._
7. A social gathering where food, often seafood, is baked, or where baked food is served. *(US)*
   - Simple: An outdoor party where food like seafood is cooked and shared.
   - _The annual lobster bake drew the whole town down to the shore._
   - _They organized a community bake to raise money for the school._
8. An oven-cooked dish of combined ingredients, similar to a casserole. *(Australia, New Zealand, UK)*
   - Simple: A hot dish of food cooked together in an oven, like a casserole.
   - _She served a creamy pasta bake to the hungry guests._
   - _A tuna bake makes an easy weeknight meal for the family._
14. A small, flat or ball-shaped cake of dough, eaten mainly in Barbados, similar to a pancake but usually fried. *(dialectal, Barbados)*
   - Simple: A small fried cake of dough, eaten mainly in Barbados, much like a pancake.
   - _In Barbados, a bake served with salt fish is a classic morning meal._
   - _Street vendors sell hot bakes stuffed with fried fish._

## Verb

15. To cause something to harden through the action of cold. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make something hard by cold.
   - _Nights of deep cold will bake the topsoil until it cracks._
   - _Severe frost baked the marsh into a rigid sheet of frozen earth._

## Origin

From Middle English baken, from Old English bacan ("to bake"), going back through Proto-Germanic *bakaną to the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeh₃g- ("to roast, bake"). It is related to Dutch bakken, German backen, and Swedish baka, all meaning "to bake."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bake (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).