1. [v]  cook and make edible by putting in a hot oven; "bake the potatoes"
2. [v]  heat by a natural force; "The sun broils the valley in the summer"
3. [v]  prepare with dry heat in an oven; "bake a cake"

1. \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.
   

2. \Bake\, v. i.
   1. To do the work of baking something; as, she brews, washes,
      and bakes. --Shak.
   2. To be baked; to become dry and hard in heat; as, the bread
      bakes; the ground bakes in the hot sun.
   

3. \Bake\, n.
   The process, or result, of baking.
   

The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Gen. 18:6; Lev. 26:26; 1 Sam. 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public bakers mentioned (Hos. 7:4, 6; Jer. 37:21).

The bread was generally in the form of long or round cakes (Ex. 29:23; 1 Sam. 2:36), of a thinness that rendered them easily broken (Isa. 58:7; Matt. 14:19; 26:26; Acts 20:11). Common ovens were generally used; at other times a jar was half-filled with hot pebbles, and the dough was spread over them. Hence we read of "cakes baken on the coals" (1 Kings 19:6), and "baken in the oven" (Lev. 2:4). (See BREAD.)