Roasting
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The act by which something is roasted.
"These elements are expelled more completely by a large number of comparatively incomplete roastings (alternated, of course, with smeltings) than by a smaller number of extremely thorough roastings[…]"
- 2 cooking (meat) by dry heat in an oven (usually with fat added) wordnet
- 3 A strong rebuke or reprimand (usually from the recipient's point of view). colloquial, figuratively
"My boss gave me a roasting for last month's sales figures."
- 4 The act of attempting to humiliating someone or being humiliated in such a way that it appears comedic, especially publicly.
- 1 present participle and gerund of roast form-of, gerund, participle, present
"Broiling is but another way of roasting those cuts of meat which have a broad, flat surface such as steaks, chops, or cutlets."
- 1 Very hot. colloquial
"The day started out cool, but by noon it was roasting."
Example
More examples"You know, the ones where you skewer some marshmallows and roast them. I don't know what they're called but they're really good. Let's try roasting some at my place sometime, too."
Etymology
From Middle English rostynge; equivalent to roast + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "roasting"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.