roasting
Syllables: roas·tingUK/ˈɹəʊstɪŋ//ˈɹoʊstɪŋ/
roasting is the present participle and gerund of roast.
Noun
roasting (plural roastings)
- 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[…]1885, Henry Marion Howe, Copper smelting, page 15
- There were signs of recent roastings and fryings, and Frank explained he’d been eating pretty well, making his way through frozen stocks from the shop.2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian
- A strong rebuke or reprimand (usually from the recipient's point of view).
- My boss gave me a roasting for last month's sales figures.
- The act of attempting to humiliating someone or being humiliated in such a way that it appears comedic, especially publicly.
Meaning of roast
Verb
roast (third-person singular simple present roasts, present participle roasting, simple past and past participle roasted)
- To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.
- to roast meat on a spit
- To cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc.
- to roast a potato in ashes
- To process by drying through exposure to sun or artificial heat.
- Coffee beans need roasting before use.
- To heat to excess; to heat violently; to burn.
- roasted in wrath and firec. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To admonish someone vigorously.
- I'm late home for the fourth time this week; my mate will really roast me this time.
- To subject to bantering, severely criticize, sometimes as a comedy routine.
- He roasted a bully who then fought with him.
Adjective
roasting (comparative more roasting, superlative most roasting)
- Very hot.
- The day started out cool, but by noon it was roasting.
Forms of roasting
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more roasting |
| superlative | most roasting |
| Noun | |
| plural | roastings |
Origin of roasting
From Middle English rostynge; equivalent to roast + -ing.
Words formed from roasting
Phrases with roasting
- roasting up
- roasting ear
- roasting pan
- roasting tin
- roasting ears
- roasting jack
- roasting pans
- roasting tins
- spit roasting
- roasting jacks
- roasting cylinder
- roasting cylinders
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with roasting
Questions about roasting
- What does roasting mean?
- Roasting means very hot.
- What is roasting the present participle and gerund of?
- Roasting is the present participle and gerund of roast.
- What part of speech is roasting?
- Roasting can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce roasting?
- Roasting is pronounced /ˈɹəʊstɪŋ/ (UK).
Words near roasting in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: roasting (page history and authors); roast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-roasting.wav.
Cite this entry: “roasting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/roasting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.