Forms: 1 bacan, 3–5 bake(n, 5 -yn, 6 baake, 7 baque, 4– bake. Pa. t. 1–4 bóc, 4 booc, book, bakide, 5 boke, (6 Sc. buik, beuk,) 5– baked. Pa. pple. 1 bacen, 2–7 baken, 4 baake, 4–5 bacun, ybake, ibake, 4–6 bake, 5 bakun, (6 Sc. backin, baikin, baykin, ybaik), 6 bakt, 6– baked. [Common Teutonic: OE. bac-an = OHG. bach-an, pach-an, MHG. bachen, ON., Sw. baka, Da. bage; also, OHG. bacchan, MHG. and G. backen, MDu. backen, Du. bakken, OS. bakken. OTeut. ? *bak-an (perh., as Paul thinks, in present stem bakka-, by assimilation of a suffix, ? from bak-ná), cogn. w. Gr. φώγ-ειν to roast, parch, toast, pointing to an Aryan bhōg-. Originally a strong vb.; the str. pa. t. survived to c. 1400, and is still used dialectally; the str. pa. pple. baken occurs five times in the Bible of 1611 as against two examples of baked, and is still in reg. use in the north. The weak pa. t. baked appeared before 1400; the weak pa. pple. in 16th c., and is alone found in Shakespeare.]
1. trans. To cook by dry heat acting by conduction, and not by radiation, hence either in a closed place (oven, ashes, etc.), or on a heated surface (bakestone, griddle, live coals); primarily used of preparing bread, then of potatoes, apples, the flesh of animals. (Thus, in the primary sense, distinguished from roast: but in transferred uses they are not sharply separated.) Often absolutely.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Ex. xii. 39. Hí bócon þæt melu. Ibid., Lev. xxvi. 26. Fíf bacaþ on ánum ofene.
c. 1200. Ormin, 992. Bulltedd bræd þatt bakenn wass in ofne.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Sam. xxviii. 24. She … boke [booc, boc] therf looves. Ibid. (1388), Isa. xliv. 15. He brente and bakide looues.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 208. A capon in that one was bake.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxvii. (1495), 643. Some brede is bake vnder asshen.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iv. 40. The cornes … Thai grand, and syne buik at the fire.
1530. Palsgr., 442/1. I baake a batche of breed in an oven … Have you baken your breed yet.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iv. 101. I wash, ring, brew, bake, scowre … make the beds, and doe all my selfe.
1611. Bible, Lev. vi. 17. It shall not be baken with leauen. Ibid., Isa. xliv. 19. I haue baked bread vpon the coales.
1768. Smollett, Humph. Cl., Let. 8 June. My bread is … baked in my own oven.
1836. Dickens, Pickw., xlv. We have half a leg of mutton, baked, at a quarter before three.
1855. Eliza Acton, Mod. Cookery, ii. 55. To bake fish, a gentle oven may be used.
b. fig. To ripen with heat.
1697. Dryden, Virg., Georg., II. 754. The Vine her liquid Harvest yields, Bak’d in the Sun-shine.
† c. fig. To prepare, make ready. Obs.
1460. in Pol. R. & L. Poems (1866), 194. Whan þou doest thus, there bale þou bakeste.
2. trans. To harden by heat: a. in a (brick) kiln.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. xi. 3. Make we tiel stonys, and bake we tho with fier.
1868. J. Marryat, Pottery & Porcelain (ed. 3), Gloss. s.v. Kiln, The furnaces employed to fire or bake pottery are of three descriptions.
b. as the sun hardens the ground.
1697. Dryden, Virg., Georg., IV. 618. The Sun … bak’d the Mud.
1821. Byron, Heav. & Earth, iii. 189. When the hot sun hath baked the reeking soil Into a world.
3. To harden as frost does.
1572. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 52 b. The cold of the Winter doth bake and season the ground.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 256. Th’ earth When it is bak’d with frost.
† 4. To form into a cake or mass; to cake. Obs.
c. 1460. Bk. Curtasye, in Babees Bk. (1868), 303. An apys mow men sayne he makes, Þat brede and flesshe in hys cheke bakes.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 89. That very Mab that … bakes the Elk-locks in foule sluttish haires.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xii. 117. The old dirt is still baked on my hands.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., I. 8. If the root of the Tongue and the Windpipe, have any glutinous stuff baked to them.
5. intr. (for refl.) To undergo the process of baking; to become firm or hard with heat.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 13. Fillet of a Fenny Snake, In the Cauldron boyle and bake.
1755. in Johnson.
1876. Green, Short Hist., i. § 5. The cakes which were baking on the hearth.
Mod. These apples do not bake well. How the London Clay bakes in the sun!
6. Phrases and proverbs: To bake one’s bread: to ‘do for’ one. As they brew, so let them bake: as they begin, so let them proceed. Only half-baked: (colloq.) deficient in sense; half-witted.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 577. For euere my bred had be bake; myn lyf dawes had be tynt.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingd. (1841), 82. Euen as they brew, so let them bake.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scoft, 150. I Should do very imprudently … Either to meddle or to make: But as they brew, so let ’um bake.
1864. N. & Q., Ser. III. VI. 494/2. He is only half-baked, put in with the bread and taken out with the cakes.
7. Comb., in which bake, in sense of vbl. sb. baking, is used attrib., as bake-kettle, -oven, -pan, -shop. Also BAKE-BOARD, -HOUSE, -STONE, BAK-BRED, q.v.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss. (Zup.), 316. Pistrinum, bæcern.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 529. Bake them vnder a bake-pan of earth.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast., xxxv. 133. Tin bake-pans and other notions.
1880. N. H. Bishop, 4 Months in Sneak-Box, 317. I … built a fire in my bake-kettle.
1883. Harper’s Mag., March, 504/2. A few old men trudge about their bake-ovens.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., xxxi. 240. There are the bake-shops.
