transitive verb

1. to cook (something) with little or no moisture, as in an oven, over an open fire, or in hot embers to roast a chicken, an ox, an ear of corn, etc.
2. to dry, parch, or brown (coffee, etc.) by exposure to heat
3. to expose to great heat
4. to heat (an ore) in a furnace in the presence of oxygen or air so as to form oxides
5. to warm (oneself), as at a fireplace
6. Informal to criticize severely or ridicule without mercy

Etymology: ME rosten < OFr rostir < Frank *raustjan, akin to OHG rosten < rost, gridiron, roast

intransitive verb

1. to roast meat, etc.
2. to be cooked by being roasted
3. to be or become very hot

noun

1. something roasted; esp., roasted meat or a piece of roasted meat
2. a cut of meat for roasting
3. a roasting or being roasted
4. ☆ a picnic at which food is roasted and eaten a steer roast
5. Informal
   1. severe criticism or ridicule
   2. ☆ an entertainment at which a person, esp. a celebrity, undergoes severe but playful criticism

adjective