to bake (meat or other food) uncovered, esp. in an oven.
2.
to cook (meat or other food) by direct exposure to dry heat, as on a spit.
3.
to brown, dry, or parch by exposure to heat, as coffee beans.
4.
to cook or heat by embedding in hot coals, embers, etc.: to roast chestnuts.
5.
to heat excessively: The summer sun has been roasting the entire countryside.
6.
Metallurgy. to heat (ore or the like) in air in order to oxidize it.
7.
to warm at a hot fire: She roasted her hands over the fire.
8.
Informal. to ridicule or criticize severely or mercilessly.
9.
to honor with or subject to a roast: Friends roasted the star at a charity dinner.
–verb (used without object)
10.
to roast meat or other food.
11.
to undergo the process of becoming roasted.
–noun
12.
roasted meat or a piece of roasted meat, as a piece of beef or veal of a quantity and shape for slicing into more than one portion.
13.
a piece of meat for roasting.
14.
something that is roasted.
15.
the act or process of roasting.
16.
Informal. severe criticism.
17.
a facetious ceremonial tribute, usually concluding a banquet, in which the guest of honor is both praised and good-naturedly insulted in a succession of speeches by friends and acquaintances.
18.
an outdoor get-together, as a picnic or barbecue, at which food is roasted and eaten: a weenie roast.
–adjective
19.
roasted: roast beef.
Origin: 1250–1300; ME rosten (v.) < OF rostir < Gmc; cf. D roosten, G rösten
[rohst] 
