Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to arrest.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Roasted, arrested. I’ll Roast the Dab, I will Arrest the Rascal.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1999		Indep. Rev. 19 Aug. 1: Conforte and the girl were roasted on extortion and perjury charges.

2. to jeer, ridicule or banter; thus roasting n.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: To Roast, signifies also to rally, to teize, to hunt, or bante.
a.1732		F. Atterbury Epistolary Correspondence ii 417: Bishop Atterbury’s roasting lord Coningsby about the topick of being priest-ridden [F&H].
1748		Spy on Mother Midnight II 36: I'm sure he has been heartily roasted about it [i.e. sexual squeamishness], and [...] those we went to fee, who [...] broke many fatiricai Jokes on the Amazement I described him to be in at so extraordinary an Adventure.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 380: He was struck with the appearance of an old man, who no sooner entered the room than the mistress of the house very kindly desired one of the wits present to roast the old put.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1798		‘Country Life’ in Hilaria 66: In London, if folks ill together are put, / A bore may be roasted, a quiz may be cut.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII /1: Gentle and simple own their itch for play, / And roasting proves the Order of the Day.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1825		J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 199: We were just roasting a John Bull for not drinking his allowance of whiskey.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 299: At all events [...] you must stand a little roasting upon the subject.
1844		J.W. Kaye Peregrine Pultuney I 145: [He was] half inclined to roast a greenhorn, as he very sagaciously judged Peregrine to be.
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 69: [H]er lover, quite willing to dispense even with having Greenfinch to roast.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 201: roast to expose a person to a running fire of jokes at his expense from a whole company. QUIZZING is done by a single person only.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: He mildly inquires if they are trying to ‘roast’ him or give him ‘a brace’.
1877		‘The Spooney Velveteen’ in Laughing Songster 49: They laughed till their sides were completely sore, / And such a kick up there never was seen, / As they roasted the ‘’andsome’ Velveteen.
1891		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Mar. 3/2: ‘That girl [i.e. Jennie Hill] has won me over. I came to roast [...] I go away to toast!’.
1894		Mirror of Life 7 July 15/2: O’Brien naturally had a particular antipathy to John L. Sullivan [...] He would ‘roast’ Sullivan night and day.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 10 Mar. 1/1: Some of the minor Ministers squirmed when Mr Crick toasted and roasted them the other night.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 20: I’ve heard knockers in my time, but Estelle is the original leader of the anvil chorus. She just put everybody in town on the pan and roasted them to a whisper.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 54: Van Dusen was roasted and ridiculed by the press and public.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 36: I’ve never forgotten the way the crowed [sic] roasted you!
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 21 Nov. [synd. col.] The dramatic critics all over the country are roasting the shows.
1939		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 16 Feb. [synd. col.] [Oscar] Levant was roasting a favorite author.
1948		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/3: ‘[Y]ou’re the very first who’s ever roasted me to my face about the shape of my skull’.
1956		I. Anstruther I Presume 176: Seilhamer [. . .] wrote an article in the Herald which roasted Stanley to a crisp.
1999		Guardian Rev. 2 July 12: Kate, bassist Gabby Glaser and guitarist Jill Cunniff began – very neatly, very ruthlessly – to roast me alive.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 19 Mar. 58: And he looked at me – and if looks could kill ... I just thought: ‘Elvis is roasting me’.
2023		Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Nov. 🌐 Then I was apparently ‘roasted’ (jokingly mocked) in an argument.

3. to criticize aggressively.

1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 287: From thence we adjourned to the Mall, and after two or three turns went back to dinner, Banter assuring us, that he intended to roast Medlar, at the ordinary.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 387: In harmless chit-chat an acquaintance they roast, And serve up a friend, as they serve up a toast.
1840		London Mag. Feb. 52: All hail, immortal Sib! prescriptive roaster of Whigs, and undaunted protagonist of Toryism.
1842		Flash (NY) 2 Oct. n.p.: We’ll roast you, old dry bones, as sure as you live.
1884		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Jan. 3/2: Sheridan [...] was roasted by the Herald because he is an Irish-American instead of an imported Cockney.
1895		Cook Co. Herald (MN) 23 Mar. 4/4: That confounded editor is roasting me again. Tell me how I can bust up his infernal paper.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 48: When they were unusually Tired and Hungry, they would sing Coon Songs and Roast the War Department.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 45: More than once he stood me up on my beat, and ‘roasted’ me for some alleged deficiency in my uniform.
1914		R. Lardner ‘Horseshoes’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 255: Speed sure got a pannin’ in the clubhouse [...] Everybody in the club roasted him, but it didn’t do no good.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 20 Sept. [synd. col.] Broun, as a dramatic critic, has roasted nearly all the plays that have had long runs for Cohan.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 127: I am going to draw my cousin Angela aside to a secluded spot and roast Tuppy properly.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 176: He roasted the landlady over the cheques.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/4: roast: To downgrade a person.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 89: I looked at him angrily, about to roast him for a Judas.
1989		R.G. Barratt ‘I Might be a Racist, But’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Apart from roasting just about everything about the place, she says [etc].
1999		Guardian Rev. 11 Sept. 4: If any of us give dull, sloppy or pretentious performances, we deserve to be roasted.

4. to give someone a tough questioning, to interrogate.

c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 23: I guess Miss Pendergrass has got roasted out.
1897		Cecil Whig (Elkton, MD) 13 Feb. 4/2: The Senator grew ‘madder and madder,’ and ‘roasted’ Judge McComas for fully ten minutes.
1888		‘Dagonet’ ‘Plank Bed Ballad’ in Referee 12 Feb. n.p.: A reeler was roasting me brown [F&H].
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 55: roast, v. To require a student to perform a task especially difficult.
1905		Sporting Times 1 Apr. 1/3: ‘What is the use of roasting a man if he does not grill?’ was the bitter remark of a Liberal leader.
1925		W. Pett Ridge Damages for Breach 36: All the time I was in the witness-box, I felt as though I was being pretty well roasted.

5. to put at a disadvantage.

1797		T. Morton A Cure for the Heart Ache in Inchbold (1808) XXV 56: Dom’me, how the old Baronet has been roasted.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 55: roast, v. [...] 4. To get the better of.

6. to beat up.

1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 July 3/2: [He] did threaten to astound, astonish, bunt, batter, crush, croak, damage, destroy, eat, embowel, fake,flog, grass, gall, harass, hammer, injure, im-pumge, jam, job, kill, knock-out, larrup, lick, mummyfy, murder, nail, nauseate, unify, obliterate, pound, punish, quiet, quench, rush, roast, settle, splfllicate, tear-to-atoms, terrify, ’ug, ’umbug, velt, vip, wiolute, wanquish, xasperate, xtinguish, and yoke-up the Zany.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 46: The Saint had simply [...] hazed and man-handled and roasted them.

7. (US) to renege on one’s debts or bills.

1879

Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Mace, Bilk, Give, Roast, Skin — Are all synonymous to the verb ‘to beat,’ and are terms that have been felt by many hotel-keepers, saloonists, boarding houses, &c., as they are about the only terms they could ever get out of some of the graceless scamps of the profession, who ‘flew’ without liquidating the claims against them.

8. (US) to rob or defraud.

1882

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 June 2/2: The rustics who come to New York for a lark mustn’t be surprised if they get ‘plucked’ and ‘roasted’.

9. (US Und.) to die in the electric chair.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).