Bake \Bake\ (b[=a]k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baked (b[=a]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Baking.]

[AS. bacan; akin to D. bakken, OHG. bacchan, G. backen, Icel. & Sw. baca, Dan. bage, Gr. ? to roast.]

1. To prepare, as food, by cooking in a dry heat, either in an oven or under coals, or on heated stone or metal; as, to bake bread, meat, apples.

Note: Baking is the term usually applied to that method of cooking which exhausts the moisture in food more than roasting or broiling; but the distinction of meaning between roasting and baking is not always observed.

2. To dry or harden (anything) by subjecting to heat, as, to bake bricks; the sun bakes the ground.

3. To harden by cold.

The earth . . . is baked with frost. --Shak.

They bake their sides upon the cold, hard stone. --Spenser.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Baking \Bak"ing\, n.

1. The act or process of cooking in an oven, or of drying and hardening by heat or cold.

2. The quantity baked at once; a batch; as, a baking of bread.

Baking powder, a substitute for yeast, usually consisting of an acid, a carbonate, and a little farinaceous matter.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)