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bake

/beɪk/
/beɪk/
IPA guide

Other forms: baked; baking; bakes

To bake something is to cook it in a hot oven. When you bake a batch of blueberry muffins, your whole house smells delicious.

Whether you bake some cookies for dessert, a casserole to take to a potluck supper, or bake a clay pot in a kiln, you cook with a relatively slow, dry heat. You can also use the word bake figuratively: "Are you going to move into the shade, or are you just going to bake in the sun all day?" The Old English word was bacan, from a Germanic root.

Definitions of bake
  1. verb
    cook and make edible by putting in a hot oven
    bake the potatoes”
    see moresee less
    types:
    ovenbake
    bake in an oven
    fire
    bake in a kiln so as to harden
    shirr
    bake (eggs) in their shells until they are set
    type of:
    cook
    transform and make suitable for consumption by heating
  2. verb
    prepare with dry heat in an oven
    bake a cake”
  3. verb
    heat by a natural force
    synonyms: broil
    see moresee less
    type of:
    heat, heat up
    make hot or hotter
  4. verb
    be very hot, due to hot weather or exposure to the sun
    “the tourists were baking in the heat”
    synonyms: broil
    see moresee less
    type of:
    be
    have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
Pronunciation
US
/beɪk/
UK
/beɪk/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘bake'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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