roast, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

roast n.¹

1. a criticism; a scolding.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: He stood the roast; he was the butt.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 342: To get an unreasonable roast [...] inflates my chest.
1903		E.W. Townsend Sure 96: What bodders me is dat Duchess never got no roast nor notting; and has a smile like she is stuck on herself.
1908		Sporting News 11 June in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 93: The club had asked for waivers on him. At first McGraw came in for a roast because of this.
1915		S. Ford Torchy, Private Sec. 249: I was still chewin’ over that zippy roast Aunty had handed me.
1919		Van Loan ‘His Own Stuff’ in Score by Innings (2004) 379: The fifty-dollar fine didn’t bother me, but Uncle Billy has got a way of throwing in a roast along with it.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 428: Let ’em come! Maybe I’ll anticipate ’em and publish a roast of my own work.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Nineteen-seventy-nine started with a roast and I was the main course [ibid.] My days of copping a roast in the mainstream media when it suited them were over.

2. (US) a disappointment, e.g. of an entertainment.

1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 Dec. 6/2: ‘And you didn’t have to fight for it?’ ‘Not a blow,’ I said [...] ‘I call that a dead roast,’ he roared.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:iii 153: roast, n. A poor entertainment. ‘I went to that show but found it was a roast’.

3. (US campus) a joke.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 54: roast, n. A joke.

4. (US campus) something that can be easily accomplished.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 54: roast, n. Something easy to accomplish.

5. (Aus.) a piece of information, usu. accusatory.

1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 293: You tell — you know who — how that was, will you, Dave? I don’t want anyone bunging in the roast that it was me.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 45: A bake is a verbal assault, also known as a roast, or ‘being put on the griller.’ This method of having the court view the defendant in the worst possible light is a common tactic adopted by the police when they want a man sentenced to a long term.

6. (US campus) a difficult examination.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS.