Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Baste

Baste (bāst) , transitive verb

[Compare Icelandic beysta to strike, powder; Swedish basa to beat with a rod: perh. akin to English beat.]

1.
To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters. — Pepys
2.
(Cookery) To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.
3.
To mark with tar, as sheep. [Provincial English]

Baste , transitive verb

[Old English basten, Old French bastir, French bâtir, prob. from Old High German bestan to sew, Middle High German besten to bind, from Old High German bast bast. See Bast.]

To sew loosely, or with long stitches; -- usually, that the work may be held in position until sewed more firmly. — Shakespeare