verb

baste

bayst

verb

To drip melted fat, butter, or juices over food (usually meat) while it cooks, to keep it moist.

"Baste the turkey every twenty minutes so the skin stays juicy."

"She basted the chicken with garlic butter as it roasted."

To sew with long, loose, temporary stitches before the final sewing.

"He basted the hem in place before stitching it properly on the machine."

How to Use Baste

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishIn cooking: spooning fat or juices over food as it roasts. In sewing: tacking fabric together loosely before the real stitching.

Common mistake

Don't confuse with "baste" meaning to beat someone (an old, rare sense) — the cooking and sewing meanings are the ones people actually use today.

Common pairings

baste the turkey baste with butter baste a hem

basted past tense, basted past tense, basted past tense, bastes plural, bastes singular, bastes singular, bastes singular

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Test yourself on “baste” A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage →

Can you complete this real example?

_____ the turkey every twenty minutes so the skin stays juicy.

From Old French bastir, "to build or sew up a garment" — the cooking sense (dripping fat over meat) developed separately in English.

waste haste taste paste caste chaste namaste distaste toothpaste aftertaste