baste

/beɪst/

/beɪst/

Other forms: basting; basted; bastes

When cooks baste food, they brush or drizzle a savory liquid on it as it's cooking. If you baste your Thanksgiving turkey while it bakes, it will stay moist and tender.

A chef might baste grilled vegetables with their marinade, or baste roasting meat with its own oily drippings. The technique keeps food from drying out as it cooks. Another meaning of baste is "to sew loosely." You might quickly baste the hem of a curtain before stitching it securely in place. The origin of the culinary baste is a bit of a mystery, but the sewing term comes from the Old French bastir, "construct" or "sew up."

Definitions of baste

1. verb

   cover with liquid before cooking
   “baste a roast”

   type of:

   dampen, moisten, wash

   make moist
2. verb

   sew together loosely, with large stitches
   “baste a hem”

   synonyms: tack

   type of:

   run up, sew, sew together, stitch

   fasten by sewing; do needlework
3. noun

   a loose temporary sewing stitch to hold layers of fabric together
   synonyms: basting, basting stitch, tacking

   type of:

   embroidery stitch, sewing stitch

   a stitch made with thread and a threaded sewing needle through fabric or leather
4. verb

   strike violently and repeatedly
   synonyms: batter, clobber

   type of:

   beat, beat up, work over

   give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression