baste

• IPA^(key): /beɪst/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophone: based

Late Middle English, from Old French bastir (“build, construct, sew up (a garment)”).

Basting material to a pattern before cutting it.

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. To sew with long or loose stitches, as for temporary use, or in preparation for gathering the fabric.
   • 1991 June 14, J.F. Pirro, “Custom Work”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     He bastes the coat together with thick white thread almost like string, using stitches big enough to be ripped out easily later.

Middle English basten, of uncertain etymon, possibly from Old French basser (“moisten, soak”), from bacin (“basin”).

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.
2. (by extension) To coat over something.
   • 2001 April 20, Peter Margasak, “Almost Famous”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Ice Cold Daydream" bastes the bayou funk of the Meters in swirling psychedelia, while "Sweet Thang," a swampy blues cowritten with his dad, sounds like something from Dr. John's "Night Tripper" phase.

3. To mark (sheep, etc.) with tar.

baste (plural bastes)

1. A basting; a sprinkling of drippings etc. in cooking.
   • 1876, The Odd Fellow's Companion

     "Just like a leg of mutton being roasted before a slow fire without any one to give it a baste," groaned the old man.

Perhaps from the cookery sense of baste or from some Scandinavian etymon. Compare Old Norse beysta (“to beat, thresh”) (whence Danish børste (“to beat up”)). Compare also Swedish basa (“to beat with a rod, to flog”) and Swedish bösta (“to thump”). Might be related to French bâton (“stick”) (formerly baston); English baton comes from bâton; see also French bastonnade (“the act of beating with a stick”).

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. (archaic, slang) To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
   • July 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diaries

     One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters.

• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811), “Baste”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.

• Bates, Beast, Sebat, abets, bates, beast, beats, besat, betas, esbat, tabes

• Audio

  (file)

baste

1. singular past indicative and subjunctive of bassen

• batse, besta

Borrowed from Spanish basto.

• Audio

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baste m (plural bastes)

1. ace of clubs

baste f (plural bastes)

1. basque (clothing)

• “baste”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

baste

1. Alternative form of bast (“bast”)

baste

1. Alternative form of bast (“illegitimacy”)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈpasːte/

baste

1. spoon

• deadjabaste

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎, Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

baste

1. inflection of bastar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaste/ [ˈbas.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -aste
• Syllabification: bas‧te

baste

1. inflection of bastar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative
2. inflection of bastir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative