CAST


Meaning of CAST in English

I. ˈkast, -aa(ə)-, -ai-, -ȧ- verb

( cast ; cast ; casting ; casts )

Etymology: Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta; akin to Old Norse kös heap and perhaps to Latin gerere to bear, wage, cherish

transitive verb

1.

a.

(1) : to cause to move by throwing : send forth by throwing : impel with force : throw

cast dice

cast myself on my grass bed — W.H.Hudson †1922

(2) : to throw out (a bait) by means of a fishing rod

cast a plug into the surf

: throw out (a net) : fish (an area) by casting

b.

(1) : direct

cast a glance

cast her mind back in an effort to remember

(2) : to put forth

the fire casts a warm glow

: project or send forth especially in a particular direction

his words cast new light on the problem

(3) : to place or propel as if by throwing

cast another burden on the reader

cast doubt upon their reliability

the player cast a spell on the audience

(4) obsolete : to cause to enter or begin a state or activity

(5) : to deposit (a ballot) formally or officially : give (a vote)

c.

(1) : to throw off or away (as something lost, outworn, or no longer wanted) : get rid of : discard

the horse cast a shoe

— often used with off, away, aside

cast off all restraint

(2) now dialect Britain : vomit

(3) : to reject or dismiss as unfit or disqualified : cashier , cull

the state cannot with safety cast him — Shakespeare

— now used chiefly of farm animals

ewes were cast for age at five years

(4) Britain : to bring forth, bear, or drop prematurely : slink vt 1

an infected cow may cast its calf at the sixth month

(5) : shed , molt

cast feathers

cast leaves

(6) of honeybees : to throw off (a swarm)

(7) : to bring forth : bear , yield

d.

(1) : to throw to the ground : overthrow especially in wrestling : throw (an animal) down

the cow was cast and her legs tied

(2) : to defeat in a lawsuit

(3) archaic : convict , condemn

she was cast to be hanged — Francis Jeffrey

e. now dialect Britain : to dig or shovel up (as earth or sod)

they were casting the peats

also : to form by digging or throwing up earth

cast a ditch

cast a mound

2.

a.

(1) : to perform arithmetical operations on : compute or reckon (as accounts) : add

cast the page of entries in an account book

— often used with up

cast up a row of figures

(2) : to calculate by means of astrology

cast a person's horoscope

(3) archaic : to examine (urine) to diagnose disease

(4) printing : to cast off

b.

(1) : contrive , devise , plan

cast a cheap way how they may be all destroyed — Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher

(2) archaic : decide , intend

we cast to dine there

(3) now dialect Britain : to meditate on : consider , ponder

cast no more doubts — Christopher Marlowe

— now often used with over

3.

a. : to dispose or arrange into parts or into a suitable order — devise

I shall cast what I have to say under two principal heads — Tatler

b. : to arrange or dispose (as elements or details in a painting)

cast the draperies in a graceful arrangement

c. : to assign (as a part in a play) to an actor

cast the leading part

: assign the parts of (a dramatic production) to actors

cast the play

: assign to a role or part

cast him as Othello

the president and Congress have been cast for opposite parts — W.E.Binkley

4.

a.

(1) : to give a particular shape to (a substance) by pouring in liquid or plastic form into a mold and letting or causing to harden without pressure

cast steel

: form by this process

cast machine parts

cast concrete pillars

toys cast from plastic

(2) : to make a stereotype, electrotype, or other printing plate from (letterpress matter) : plate : make (as type, slugs, rules, stereotypes) by forcing hot metal into a matrix or mold

b. : to give form to : arrange

the book is cast in the form of an autobiography

: establish or create in a particular form

those who were casting the new Protestant state of England and Scotland — Padraic Colum

: express , formulate

casting of morality in terms of economic gain — Abraham Edel

5. : turn

cast the scale slightly

: decide

cast the balance between the outward advantages and disadvantages — J.H.Newman

6. : to make into a knot or stitch

cast a square knot

cast a stitch

7. : twist , warp

a beam cast by age

8. : to cause (a dog or a pack) to make a cast : put (a dog) on the scent

intransitive verb

1.

a. : to throw or project something ; specifically : to throw out a lure or bait with a fishing rod

b. now dialect Britain : vomit

c. dialect England : to bear fruit : yield

the wheat casts well

2.

a. : to perform addition

cast and balance at a desk — Alfred Tennyson

b. obsolete : estimate , conjecture

cast beyond ourselves in our opinions — Shakespeare

3. : warp

lumber casts

4. : to make a cast — used of hunting dogs or trackers

5. of a boat : to turn the bow from the wind so as to bring it on the desired side (as when getting under way from a mooring) : veer

6.

a. : to undergo the process of shaping in a mold : take form in a mold

overheated metal may cast badly

b. printing : to produce a cast

the safety device will not permit a loose line of matrices to cast

Synonyms: see discard , throw

- cast anchor

- cast in one's teeth

- cast loose

- cast lots

- cast one's lot with

- cast out nines

- cast the lead

- cast the withers

II. noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English, from casten to cast

1. : an act or the action or process of casting

2.

a. : an act of casting a throw (as of a missile)

b. : something that happens as a result of chance : a stroke of fortune : chance , fate , venture

his future depended on this cast

c. : a throw of dice

a seven on the first cast

also : the number of spots showing or counted in a single throw of dice

a cast of seven

d.

(1) : a throw of a line (as a fishing line or lariat) or net (as a fishing net or butterfly net)

(2) : a place for casting : a fishing place

a good cast near the bridge

3.

a. : the form in which a thing is constructed

forcing argument to the cast of rhyme — Karl Shapiro

b.

(1) : the set of actors assigned parts in a dramatic production

(2) : a descriptive list of these parts

(3) : the set of characters in a narrative

c. : the arrangement or disposition of draperies in a painting

4. : the distance to which a thing can be thrown ; specifically : the distance a bow can shoot

5.

a. : a turning of the eye in a particular direction : glance , look ; also : expression

this freakish, elfish cast came into the child's eye — Nathaniel Hawthorne

b. : a twist or turn to one side ; specifically : a slight strabismus

6. : something that is thrown or the quantity thrown: as

a. : the number (as a couple) of hawks released by a falconer at one time

b. : the number (as of herrings, crabs, or oysters) that can be thrown into a vessel at one time by hand : warp

c. Britain : a length of silkworm gut or nylon used to connect a fish lure or fly to the line : leader

d. : the quantity of metal cast at a single operation

7.

a. : something that is formed by casting in a mold or form: as

(1) : a reproduction or copy (as of a work of art) in metal or plaster : casting

(2) : a fossil reproduction of the external details of a natural object produced by infiltration of a mold of the object by water-borne minerals (as lime salts) — compare petrifaction

b. : an impression taken from an object by covering its surface with a liquid or plastic substance that when hardened retains form and detail of the original and can serve as a mold for reproduction

c. : a rigid dressing usually made from gauze or crinoline impregnated with plaster of paris or other material used for immobilizing a diseased, deformed, or broken part

8. : a forecast or conjecture concerning future events or conditions

to make a long cast ahead

9. : the quality of elastic resilience in a bow that determines its ability to propel an arrow

improving the cast of a bow

10. archaic : a specimen intended to show the quality of the whole : example

showing us a cast of his logic

— used especially in the phrase a cast of one's office

11.

a. : an overspread of a color or modification of the appearance of a substance by a trace of some added hue : shade

the rock itself had a deep purplish cast — Willa Cather

gray with a greenish cast

b. : a trace of a particular quality : tinge , suggestion

had a small cast of the coxcomb — Laurence Sterne

a cast of bitterness in his words — Walter O'Meara

12.

a. : a ride on one's way in a vehicle : lift

a wagoner gave him a cast as far as the town

b. Scotland : help , assistance

if we had the cast of a cart to bring it — Sir Walter Scott

13.

a. : a physical form or character : shape , appearance

the delicate cast of his features

b. : characteristic quality

Russia, the culture of which has as definite a cast as that of France — Edward Sapir

: nature , character , bent

his mental habits … were always of a Quakerish cast — H.S.Canby

: type , kind

Madison, Washington, and others of that cast — J.C.Miller

c. : bent , complexion

cast of mind

a mind of scientific cast

14. : something that is thrown out or off, shed, or ejected: as

a. of honeybees : an afterswarm, especially the first

b. : the excrement of an earthworm

c. : pellet 1e

d. : a mass of plastic matter formed by effusion in cavities of certain usually diseased organs and subsequently discharged from the body — see renal cast

e. : the skin of an insect

15. : the right to shoot first in an archery match given to the winner of the last shot — used with the

16. : the ranging over the field in search of a trail by a dog, hunting pack, or tracker

the setter made a wide cast

III. adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Latin castus — more at caste

obsolete : chaste

IV.

obsolete

variant of caste

V. ˈkast, -aa(ə)-, -ai, -ȧ- adjective

Etymology: from past participle of cast (I)

of an animal : down or on its back and unable to get up

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.