toasty

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
toast1

▶noun

• 1 sliced bread browned on both sides by exposure to radiant heat.

• 2 an act or instance of raising glasses at a gathering and drinking together in honour of a person or thing.

  ■ a person who is toasted or held in high regard: he was the toast of the baseball world.

▶verb

• 1 cook or brown by exposure to radiant heat.

  ■ warm (oneself or part of one's body) beside a fire or other source or heat.

• 2 drink a toast to.

– phrases
be toast informal, chiefly N. Amer. be finished, defunct, or dead.
have someone on toast Brit. informal be in a position to deal with someone as one wishes.

– derivatives
toasted adjective,
toasty adjective.

word history: The verb toast entered Middle English meaning ‘burn as the sun does, parch’; it came from Old French toster ‘roast’, from Latin torrere ‘parch’ (past participle tostus). The notion of drinking a toast goes back to the late 17th century, and originated in the practice of naming a lady whose health the company was requested to drink; the lady's name was supposed to flavour the drink like the pieces of spiced toast that were formerly added to wine.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
toast2

▶verb (of a DJ) accompany a reggae backing track or music with improvised rhythmic speech.

– derivatives
toasting noun.

– origin 1970s: perh. the same word as toast1.