Baste

Pronunciation

• IPA: /beɪst/
• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophones: based

From Old French bastir ("build, construct, sew up (a garment)").

Full definition of baste

Verb

1. To sew with wide stitches.
• 1991, June 14, J.F. Pirro, Custom Work, He bastes the coat together with thick white thread almost like string, using stitches big enough to be ripped out easily later.

Unknown, possibly from Old French basser ("moisten, soak").

Verb

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, 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.

Perhaps from the cookery sense of baste or from some Scandinavian source. 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")

Verb

1. (1811) To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
• Samuel PepysOne man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters.

Anagrams

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