Half-baked

//ˌhæfˈbeɪkt// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Incomplete; (of an idea or scheme) not fully planned or carefully considered, ill-conceived, unsound or badly thought-out; (of a person) foolish or having no common sense. figuratively, informal

    "The guy had some half-baked idea for getting rich in the stock market."

  2. 2
    Under the influence (of alcohol) but not totally baked.

    "If you need to talk to John tonight, try to catch him early in the evening, while he's still only half-baked."

  3. 3
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: Partially cooked by heating in an oven, either as an accidental outcome or as a work in process.

    "Near-synonyms: underbaked, dough-baked (dated)"

Adjective
  1. 1
    insufficiently cooked wordnet
  2. 2
    foolish; totally unsound wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dough-baked;adolescentadvancedamateuramateurish

Example

More examples

"This sweet potato is only half-baked and is still crunchy."

Etymology

From half- + baked.

Related phrases

half-bakedness

More for "half-baked"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.