Basted

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbeɪstɪd/

Definitions

1. To moisten food with its own juices or added liquid while cooking to keep it from drying out ; to sew loosely with large, temporary stitches that can be removed easily
2. To periodically spoon or pour liquid over roasting meat or vegetables to enhance flavor and prevent drying ; to fasten fabric temporarily with large, loose stitches before final sewing
3. To keep food moist during cooking by spooning liquids over it repeatedly ; to hold fabric pieces together temporarily using easily removable, big stitches

Etymology: The cooking sense of "baste" and the sewing sense both trace back to a single uncertain ancestor, and the sewing sense came first. In Old French, "bastir" meant "build, construct, sew up (a garment)", and English borrowed it in the late Middle English period. Sewing a garment together loosely with large temporary stitches was the earliest English use, which is why the sense of moving thread quickly through cloth survives alongside the kitchen one. The cooking sense is a separate development. Middle English "basten" may have come from Old French "basser", meaning "moisten, soak", which in turn was possibly linked to "bacin", meaning "basin". Whether the sewing and cooking senses truly share a root is unclear, and the link is more a matter of convergence than of a proven single source. Some scholars connect the word to a Germanic root meaning "to smack or thresh", related to the German "Faust" for fist, and to Latin "fustis", a cudgel. That suggests the idea of striking is an old thread in its background, though the connection to cooking is far from certain.

Synonyms: moistened, drenched