/ beɪk; NAmE / verb
1.
bake sth (for sb) | bake (sb) sth to cook food in an oven without extra fat or liquid; to be cooked in this way :
[ vn ]
baked apples
[ vn , vnn ]
I'm baking a birthday cake for Alex.
I'm baking Alex a cake.
[ v ]
the delicious smell of baking bread
2.
to become or to make sth become hard by heating :
[ v ]
The bricks are left in the kiln to bake.
[ vn - adj ]
The sun had baked the ground hard.
[also vn ]
3.
[ v ] ( informal ) to be or become very hot :
We sat baking in the sun.
—see also half-baked
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WORD ORIGIN
Old English bacan , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch bakken and German backen .