toast

• (obsolete) tost

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /təʊst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /toʊst/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /təʉst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊst

From Middle English tost, from the verb tosten (see below).

(person who is honored with a drink): First appears in print at the very end of the 17th century. The conventional assumption is that the use is metaphorical, “the name of a lady being supposed to flavour a drink like a spiced toast.” This is pure speculation, however, as the origin of the sense remains obscure.

(something that will be no more): Ad-libbed by actor Bill Murray in the 1984 film Ghostbusters (see quotation).^[1]

toast (countable and uncountable, plural toasts)

2. (chiefly uncountable) Toasted bread.

   I ate a piece of toast for breakfast.

   This toast and marmalade tastes heavenly.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 23:

     Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. In [public schools] where alcohol, tobacco and drugs were forbidden, it was essential that something should take their place as a powerful and public totem of virility and cool. Toast, for reasons lost in time, was the substance chosen.

3. (countable) A proposed salutation (e.g. saying "cheers") while drinking alcohol.

   Synonym: pledge

   At the reception, there were many toasts from the well-wishers.

4. (countable) A person, group, or notable object to which a salutation with alcohol is made; a person or group held in similar esteem.

   He was the toast of high society.

   • 2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Josephine Baker did not become the toast of Paris by just shaking her booty for some theater gypsies as a party wound down.

5. (uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that is irreparably damaged or used up, especially when destroyed by heat or fire; something which has been burnt to a crisp or incinerated.

   The metal frame survived the fire, but the plastic and rubber bits are toast.

6. (uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that will be no more; something subject to impending destruction, harm or injury.

   to become/be toast

   If I ever get my hands on the guy that stole my wallet, he’s toast!

   • 1984, Ghostbusters, spoken by Peter Venkman (Bill Murray):

     This chick is toast!

     The original line was: "I'm gonna turn this guy into toast."

7. (countable, music, slang, Jamaica) A type of extemporaneous narrative poem or rap.
8. (countable, slang, obsolete) An old toast ("a lively fellow who drinks excessively").
9. (countable, computing, graphical user interface) A transient, informational unclickable pop-up overlay, less interactive than a snackbar.
   • 2012, Nick Lecrenski, Doug Holland, Allen Sanders, Professional Windows 8 Programming:

     With the new Windows Push Notification Service, you can remotely send notifications from a cloud-based web service. In Windows 8, the majority of the Toast messages are standard duration toasts.

10. (countable, obsolete outside India) A piece of toast.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 52, column 1:

      Go, fetch me a quart of Sacke, put a toſt in't.

• → Bulgarian: тост (tost)
• → Chinese: 吐司 (tǔsī)
• → Czech: toust, toast
• → Dutch: toost, toast
• → French: toast
  • → Romanian: toast
• → German: Toast
• → Greek: τοστ (tost)
• → Hebrew: טוסט (tost)
• → Italian: toast
• → Japanese: トースト (tōsuto)
• → Korean: 토스트 (toseuteu)
• → Maori: tōhi
• → Macedonian: тост (tost)
• → Norwegian Bokmål: toast
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: toast
• → Polish: tost, toast
• → Russian: тост (tost)
  • → Armenian: տոստ (tost)
• → Turkish: tost
• → Ukrainian: тост (tost)
• → Welsh: tost

From Middle English tosten, from Old French toster (“to roast, grill”), from Latin tostus (“grilled, burnt”), from verb torreō (“to burn, grill”).

toast (third-person singular simple present toasts, present participle toasting, simple past and past participle toasted)

1. (transitive) to cook lightly by browning via direct exposure to a fire or other heat source

   We used to enjoy toasting marshmallows around the campfire.

2. (intransitive, specifically) to cook lightly by browning under a grill or in a toaster; to grill

   Top with cheese and toast under the grill for a few minutes.

3. (ambitransitive) To engage in a salutation, often with raising of the drinking vessel, while drinking an alcoholic beverage in honor of someone or something.

   We toasted the happy couple many times over the course of the evening.

   You all have achieved so much together thus far, so I think that deserves a toast! Let's toast!

4. (transitive) To warm thoroughly.

   I toasted my feet by the fire.

5. (music, slang, Jamaica) To perform an extemporaneous narrative poem or rap.
   • 2014, Richard James Burgess, The History of Music Production, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 168:

     Toasting over a record does more than change the way that record is perceived by the audience: it creates a new piece of music with joint creative authorship, although the law does not support this characterization.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “toast”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• stato-, stoat, tasto, toats, totas

Borrowed from English toast.

• IPA^(key): /toːst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: toast
• Rhymes: -oːst
• Homophone: toost

toast m (plural toasts, diminutive toastje n)

1. (chiefly diminutive) Melba toast

• toasten

toast

1. elative singular of tuba

Borrowed from English toast. Doublet of tôt.

• IPA^(key): /tɔst/

• Audio (France, Avignon):

  (file)

toast m (plural toasts)

1. toast (bread)
2. toast (salutation)

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

• tosto (rare)

Pseudo-anglicism, from English toast.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔst/
• Rhymes: -ɔst

toast m (invariable)

1. toasted sandwich

• toast in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• stato, tasto, tastò, tosta

Borrowed from English toast.

toast m (definite singular toasten, indefinite plural toaster, definite plural toastene)

1. toast (toasted bread)

• ristet brød

• “toast” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from English toast.

toast m (definite singular toasten, indefinite plural toastar, definite plural toastane)

1. toast (toasted bread)

• rista brød

• “toast” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English toast. Doublet of tost.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔ.ast/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔast
• Syllabification: to‧ast

toast m inan (diminutive toaścik)

1. toast (proposed salutation)

• toast in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• toast in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French toast.

toast n (plural toasturi)

1. toast (salutation when drinking alcohol)

Borrowed from English toast. First attested in 1790

toast c

1. toast (toasted bread)

   Synonym: rostat bröd (literally “toasted bread”)

2. toast (salutation)

   Synonym: skål

Fancier sounding than rostat bröd. Often in the names of dishes.

• toast Pelle Janzon
• Toast Skagen

• toast in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• toast in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)