Forms: 5–7 tost, 5–6 toste, tooste, (6 Sc. toyst), 6– toast. [ad. OF. toster (12th c. in Godef.) to roast or grill:—pop.L. *tostāre, f. tost-, supine stem of L. torrēre to parch; cf. Sp., Pg. tostar, It. tostare.]
1. trans. To burn as the sun does, to parch; to heat thoroughly. Obs. exc. as transf. from 2.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. iii. (Bodl. MS.). Ethiopia … þe sonne is nyȝe and rosteþ and tosteþ ham.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. ii. 6 b. They haue for armes or weapons certaine staues of an Oke tree bathed or toasted with fire.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 665. The Earth whereof the grass is soon parched with the Sun and toasted.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 106. Some flowers must be warmed, some toasted, and some almost scalded.
1860–1. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 56. A careful woman will air her whole bedding, at least once a week,… by hanging it out in fine weather in the sun and air, or by toasting it before a hot fire.
b. fig. To redden (by drinking).
1701. Cibber, Love makes Man, V. iii. Now, Charles, we’ll e’en toast our Noses over a chirping Bottle.
c. intr. for refl. To warm oneself thoroughly.
1614. W. Browne, Sheph. Pipe, i. B iij b. I will sing what I did leere … Of a skilfull aged Sire, As we tosted by the fire.
1861. Holland, Less. Life, i. 10. Toasting in the sunlight is conducive rather to reverie than thought.
2. To brown (bread, cheese, etc.) by exposure to the heat of a fire.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 14. Loke thou tost fyne w[h]ete brede.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 497/2. Tooste brede, or oþer lyke, torreo.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, cxxi. (1906), 170. Men must … toste and Rost them before the fyre.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 106. If it [Psillium] be perched or tosted at the fyre.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 23. Theyre corne in quernstoans thye doe grind and toste yt on embers.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 130. Toasting of cheese in Wales and seething of Rice in Turkey will enable a man freely to professe the Art of Cookery.
1672. Grew, Anat. Plants, Idea Philos. Hist., § 42. The Root of Horse-Radish, toasted, tasteth like a Turnep.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xiv. 230. Toast a slice of bread brown on both sides.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 74. The seeds are by some people toasted, so as to be used in the manner of coffee.
1849. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xxiv. I’ll toast you some bacon in a bachelor’s Dutch-oven.
b. transf. To warm (one’s feet or toes) at a fire.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), II. 373. People … who toast their feet on the register.
1869. Lowell, Under the Willows, Prelude, i. My Elmwood chimneys seem crooning to me … As I sit in my arm-chair, and toast my toes.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, 240. I toasted my feet at the fire, setting them on the hot hearthstone to dry.
c. intr. for pass. To undergo toasting; to be toasted.
1845–51. [implied in TOASTER1 2 b].
Mod. This cheese toasts well.
† 3. To destroy or disintegrate with fire. Obs.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 174. Nabuchodonosor whose purpose was to toast with fire and vtterly destroy the martyrs of God.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xcvi. 279. The onely fume or smoake of Nigella tosted or burnt, driueth away Serpents.
Hence Toasted ppl. a.; Toasting vbl. sb., also in comb., as toasting-jack, -pan; toasting-fork, fork used for toasting bread, etc.; fig. a rapier or sword; toasting-iron (arch.) = prec.
1584. B. R., trans. Herodotus, II. 116. For their lyuery fiue pound of *tosted bread, two pounde of Beefe, and a gallon of wyne.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. (1634), 178. To draw out Mouse with a piece of tosted Cheese.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 606. Crumbs of toasted bread.
1541–3. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VIII. 51. For … ane kais to ane *toysting pan, and for ane kais to four ladillis.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. iii. 99. Put vp thy sword betime; Or Ile so maule you, and your tosting-Iron.
1836. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), IV. 164. An order ensued, that … the Sir Charles Grandisons of the day should leave their toasting-irons in another room.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xiii. The Dodger snatched up the toasting fork, and made a pass at the merry old gentleman’s waistcoat.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown af Oxf., xli. If I had given him time to get at his other pistol, or his toasting fork, it was all up.
1873. Holland, A. Bonnic., viii. 140. The girl with the toasting-jack dropped her implement to answer the unwelcome summons [knock at the door].
