roast

To cook food in an oven or over a fire, usually without liquid or a cover.

• Roast the potatoes for an hour.
• She roasted a chicken for dinner.
• You can roast these vegetables together in one tray.

How to use it: roast something in something (Roast the chicken in a hot oven.); roast something over something (We roasted the meat over an open fire.)

Common phrases: roast a chicken, roast potatoes, roast in something

To criticize someone very harshly, often in front of other people.

• The boss roasted me.
• She roasted him for losing the keys again.
• The coach roasted the players after their poor performance.

How to use it: roast someone for something (The manager roasted us for missing the deadline.)

Similar words: scold, tell off, berate

Opposites: praise

Common phrases: roast someone, roast someone for something

To heat and dry something, often to develop its flavor or prepare it for use.

• They roast their own coffee beans.
• She roasted the nuts until they smelled sweet.
• These beans were roasted yesterday.

Common phrases: roast coffee beans, roast nuts, roast cocoa beans

To cook food by putting it among hot ashes, glowing pieces of wood, or other heated material.

• We roasted potatoes in the ashes.
• They roast the roots in hot sand.
• The campers roasted their food among the glowing embers.

How to use it: roast something in something (They roasted the potatoes in hot ashes.)

Common phrases: roast in ashes, roast in embers, roast a potato

A large piece of meat that is cooked, or ready to be cooked, in an oven.

• The roast is ready.
• She bought a pork roast from the butcher.
• He carved the roast into thick slices.

Similar words: joint

Common phrases: beef roast, pork roast, carve a roast

A meal of food cooked in an oven, usually meat with potatoes and vegetables.

• We had a roast for lunch.
• My mother makes a Sunday roast every week.
• Would you like gravy with your roast?

Similar words: roast dinner

Common phrases: Sunday roast, a roast dinner, have a roast

The amount of heating used to prepare something, especially coffee beans.

• I prefer a dark roast.
• This light roast has a fruity flavor.
• These beans have a darker roast than our usual coffee.

Similar words: roasting level

Common phrases: dark roast, light roast, medium roast

A social gathering where people cook food over a fire and eat it together.

• We held a corn roast.
• Friends gathered around the fire for a wiener roast.
• The club’s annual roast takes place by the lake.

Similar words: cookout

Common phrases: wiener roast, corn roast, host a roast