Wiktionary

toast

See also: Toast and TOAST

English

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Toast (bread)

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English tost, from the verb tosten (see below).

The sense "a person who is honored with a drink and wishes for good health or prosperity," with the accompanying verb "to propose or drink to (a person) as a toast," first appears in print at the very end of the 17th century. The conventional assumption is that the use is metaphorical, "the name of a lady being supposed to flavour a drink like a spiced toast." This is pure speculation, however, as the origin of the sense remains obscure.

Noun

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toast (countable and uncountable, plural toasts)

  1. (countable, uncountable) Toasted bread.
    I ate a piece of toast for breakfast.
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 23:
      Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. In [public schools] where alcohol, tobacco and drugs were forbidden, it was essential that something should take their place as a powerful and public totem of virility and cool. Toast, for reasons lost in time, was the substance chosen.
  2. (countable) A proposed salutation (e.g. to say "cheers") while drinking alcohol.
    At the reception, there were many toasts from the well-wishers.
  3. (countable) A person, group, or notable object to which a salutation with alcohol is made; a person or group held in similar esteem.
    He was the toast of high society.
    • 2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic‎[2], →ISSN:
      Josephine Baker did not become the toast of Paris by just shaking her booty for some theater gypsies as a party wound down.
  4. (uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that that is irreparably damaged or used up, especially when destroyed by heat or fire; something which has been burnt to a crisp or incinerated.
    The metal frame survived the fire, but the plastic and rubber bits are toast.
  5. (uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that will be no more; something subject to impending destruction, harm or injury.
    If I ever get my hands on the guy that stole my wallet, he’s toast!
  6. (countable, music, slang, Jamaica) A type of extemporaneous narrative poem or rap.
  7. (countable, slang, obsolete) An old toast ("a lively fellow who drinks excessively").
  8. (countable, computing, graphical user interface) A transient, informational unclickable pop-up overlay, less interactive than a snackbar.
    • 2012, Nick Lecrenski, Doug Holland, Allen Sanders, Professional Windows 8 Programming:
      With the new Windows Push Notification Service, you can remotely send notifications from a cloud-based web service. In Windows 8, the majority of the Toast messages are standard duration toasts.
  9. (countable, obsolete outside India) A piece of toast.
  10. (something that will be no more) Ad-libbed by actor Bill Murray in the 1984 film Ghostbusters (see quotation).[1]
Usage notes
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  • The slang sense of something or someone subject to impending destruction is most commonly found predicatively in the combination be (or become) toast.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English tosten, from Old French toster (“to roast, grill”), from Latin tostus (“grilled, burnt”), from verb torreō (“to burn, grill”).

Verb

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toast (third-person singular simple present toasts, present participle toasting, simple past and past participle toasted)

  1. To lightly cook by browning via direct exposure to a fire or other heat source.
    We liked to toast marshmallows around the campfire.
  2. To grill, lightly cook by browning specifically under a grill or in a toaster
    Top with cheese and toast under the grill for a few minutes.
  3. To engage in a salutation and/or accompanying raising of glasses while drinking alcohol in honor of someone or something.
    We toasted the happy couple many times over the course of the evening.
  4. To warm thoroughly.
    I toasted my feet by the fire.
  5. (music, slang, Jamaica) To perform extemporaneous narrative poem or rap.
    • 2014, Richard James Burgess, The History of Music Production, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 168:
      Toasting over a record does more than change the way that record is perceived by the audience: it creates a new piece of music with joint creative authorship, although the law does not support this characterization.
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

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  1. ^ Ben Zimmer (2023 June 22) “'Toast': From Busting Ghosts to Burning Careers”, in The Wall Street Journal‎[1], New York, N.Y.: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 June 2023:
    In the script, as the Ghostbusters train their proton blasters on Gozer, Murray's character says, "That's it! I'm gonna turn this guy into toast." By the time the scene was shot, the filmmakers had decided the human form of Gozer should be played by the model Slavitza Jovan. Murray improvised various comments about her, including changing the line in the script to "This chick is toast." The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes Murray's ad-lib as the earliest known occurrence of "toast" with the modern meaning, calling the usage "proleptic."

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English toast.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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toast m (plural toasts, diminutive toastje n)

  1. (chiefly diminutive) Melba toast
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Estonian

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Noun

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toast

  1. elative singular of tuba

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English toast. Doublet of tôt.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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toast m (plural toasts)

  1. toast (bread)
  2. toast (salutation)

Further reading

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Italian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Pseudo-anglicism, from English toast.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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toast m (invariable)

  1. toasted sandwich
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Further reading

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  • toast in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English toast.

Noun

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toast m (definite singular toasten, indefinite plural toaster, definite plural toastene)

  1. toast (toasted bread)

Synonyms

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References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English toast.

Noun

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toast m (definite singular toasten, indefinite plural toastar, definite plural toastane)

  1. toast (toasted bread)

Synonyms

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References

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Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Borrowed from English toast. Doublet of tost.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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toast m inan (diminutive toaścik)

  1. toast (proposed salutation)

Declension

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Declension of toast
singular plural
nominative toast toasty
genitive toastu toastów
dative toastowi toastom
accusative toast toasty
instrumental toastem toastami
locative toaście toastach
vocative toaście toasty

Derived terms

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adjective
verb

Further reading

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  • toast in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • toast in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French toast.

Noun

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toast n (plural toasturi)

  1. toast (salutation when drinking alcohol)

Declension

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Declension of toast
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) toast toastul (niște) toasturi toasturile
genitive/dative (unui) toast toastului (unor) toasturi toasturilor
vocative toastule toasturilor
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