Late Middle English, from Old French bastir (“build, construct, sew up (a garment)”).
Meanings
(transitive) To sew with long or loose stitches, as for temporary use, or in preparation for gathering the fabric.
He bastes the coat together with thick white thread almost like string, using stitches big enough to be ripped out easily later. 1991 June 14, J.F. Pirro, “Custom Work”, in Chicago Reader:
ca embastar (sew with long or loose stitches) · es embastar (sew with long or loose stitches) · cs stehovat (sew with long or loose stitches) · qu ch'uhtay (sew with long or loose stitches) · io imbastar (sew with long or loose stitches) · cmn 疏縫 /疏缝 (sew with long or loose stitches) · tl lagwatin (sew with long or loose stitches) · sv tråckla (sew with long or loose stitches) · gl ganduxar (sew with long or loose stitches) · mi tui rangitahi (sew with long or loose stitches) · es hilvanar (sew with long or loose stitches) · fi harsia (sew with long or loose stitches) · cmn 假縫 /假缝 (sew with long or loose stitches) · fr bâtir (sew with long or loose stitches) · ru смётывать (sew with long or loose stitches) · fr faufiler (sew with long or loose stitches) · ru смета́ть (sew with long or loose stitches) · cs nastehovat (sew with long or loose stitches) · de heften (sew with long or loose stitches) · bg тропосвам (sew with long or loose stitches) · tl lagwatan (sew with long or loose stitches) · ro însăila (sew with long or loose stitches) · yi פֿאַסטריגעווען (sew with long or loose stitches)
From Middle English basten, of uncertain etymon, possibly from Old French basser (“moisten, soak”), from bacin (“basin”).
Meanings
A basting; a sprinkling of drippings etc. in cooking.
"Just like a leg of mutton being roasted before a slow fire without any one to give it a baste," groaned the old man. 1876, The Odd Fellow's Companion:
From Middle English basten, of uncertain etymon, possibly from Old French basser (“moisten, soak”), from bacin (“basin”).
Meanings
(transitive) To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.
(broadly, transitive) To coat over something.
Ice Cold Daydream" bastes the bayou funk of the Meters in swirling psychedelia, while "Sweet Thang," a swampy blues cowritten with his dad, sounds like something from Dr. John's "Night Tripper" phase. 2001 April 20, Peter Margasak, “Almost Famous”, in Chicago Reader:
de begießen (sprinkle and drip) · cs podlévat (sprinkle and drip) · cs polévat šťávou (sprinkle and drip) · bg намазвам (sprinkle and drip) · ceb humol (sprinkle and drip) · de beizen (sprinkle and drip) · bg намажа (sprinkle and drip) · fi valella (sprinkle and drip) · nl bedruipen (sprinkle and drip)
From the surface, either an indigenous cognate or borrowed from North Germanic; compare: Old Norse bausta, Icelandic beysta, Norwegian Nynorsk bøysta, Swedish bösta, bysta, Danish bøste (“to smack, thresh”), to a Proto-Germanic *baustjaną. Compare derivatives Old Norse bǫstl (“arrow”), Swedish böstel (“racket, pestle”), böste (“crowbar”). Further compare fist, German Faust (“fist”), etc, and Latin fustis (“cudgel”).
Might be related to French bâton (“stick”) (formerly baston); English baton comes from bâton; see also French bastonnade (“the act of beating with a stick”).
Meanings
(archaic, slang) To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
July 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diaries
One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters.