cast
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: käst
ipa: /kɑːst/
enpr: kăst
ipa: /kast/
enpr: kăst
ipa: /kæst/
note: New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore
enpr: /kɛəst/
homophone: caste
homophone: (in some non-rhotic accents) karst
rhymes: -ɑːst
rhymes: -æst
Forms: form: casts
form: casting
form: cast
form: cast
form: casted
form: casted
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: castest
form: cast
form: castest
form: casts
form: casteth
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: cast
form: -
form: casting
form: cast
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin.
Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.
The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.
Senses: examples: text: Why then a Ladder quaintly made of Cords / To cast vp, with a paire of anchoring hookes, / Would serue to scale another Hero's towre[…].
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: The more, an' please your honour, the pity, said the Corporal; in uttering which, he cast his spade into the wheelbarrow[…].
ref: 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], page 262:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw.
synonyms: word: fling
word: hurl
word: bung
word: cast
word: chuck
word: chunk
word: cook
word: dash
word: dump
word: feck
word: fling
word: jerk
word: heave
word: hield
word: hoy
word: huck
word: hurl
word: hurtle
word: launch
word: lob
word: peck
word: peg
word: pick
word: pitch
word: precipitate
word: project
word: quoit
word: shy
word: slight
word: skew
word: sling
word: thrill
word: throw
word: toss
word: traject
word: warp
word: whang
word: whip
word: whop
word: wing
examples: text: As Jesus walked by the see off Galile, he sawe two brethren: Simon which was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, castynge a neet into the see (for they were fisshers)[…].
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew iiij:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw forward (a fishing line, net etc.) into the sea.
synonyms: project
examples: text: So she to Guyon offred it to tast; / Who taking it out of her tender hond, / The cup to ground did violently cast, / That all in peeces it was broken fond […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:30:
text: Near Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, Madman, co-pilot and plane were caught in a storm, cast into the Caribbean, drowned.
ref: 1930 December 19, “Sidar the Madman”, in Time:
text: Her bow is not to her liking. In a temper, she casts it on the grass.
ref: 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 316:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw down or aside.
synonyms: cast down
throw down
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw off (the skin) as a process of growth; to shed the hair or fur of the coat.
synonyms: slough
raw_tags: of an animal
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To shed leaves or fruit prematurely.
examples: text: when the serjeant saw me, he cast his coat and put it on me, and they carried me on their shoulders to a village where the wounded were and our surgeons[…].
ref: 1822, “Life of Donald McBane”, in Blackwood's Magazine, volume 12, page 745:
text: You know the saying, "Ne'er cast a clout till May is out"? Well, personally, I'm bored of my winter clothes by March.
ref: 2002 March 2, Jess Cartner-Morley, “How to Wear Clothes”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To remove, take off (clothes).
synonyms: doff
qualifier: obsolete except in set phrases
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To heave the lead and line in order to ascertain the depth of water.
examples: text: These verses[…]make me ready to cast.
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, scene i:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To vomit.
synonyms: word: hurl
word: bait
word: barf
word: be sick
word: blow chunks
word: boak
word: boke
word: boot
word: bork
word: bow down before the porcelain god
word: cast
word: cast up one's accounts
word: chuck
word: chuck up
word: chunder
word: disgorge
word: drive the porcelain bus
word: erupt
word: gag
word: get sick
word: heave
word: honk
word: hurl
word: launch one's lunch
word: lose one's lunch
word: pray to the porcelain god
word: puke
word: puke up
word: purge
word: ralph
word: regurge
word: regurgitate
word: retch
word: shoot the cat
word: sick
word: sick up
word: spew
word: talk to God on the big white telephone
word: talk to Ralph on the big white telephone
word: throw up
word: toss
word: toss one's cookies
word: upchuck
word: vomit
word: woof one's cookies
word: whoops
word: worship the porcelain god
word: worship the porcelain goddess
word: yak
examples: text: Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 19:48:
text: Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.
ref: 1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford, volume 1, page 170:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw up, as a mound, or rampart.
examples: text: 1695 (first published), 1726 (final dated of publication) John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies
This […] casts a sulphurous smell.
text: This horned bird, as it casts a strong smell, so it hath a foul look, much exceeding the European Raven in bigness
ref: 1849, Philip Henry Gosse, Natural History:
glosses: To move, or be moved, away.
To throw out or emit; to exhale.
examples: text: To whom do Lyons cast their gentle Lookes? Not to the Beast, that would vsurpe their Den.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and cast her eyes round the room in quest of some amusement[…].
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 11, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.
ref: 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
glosses: To direct (one's eyes, gaze etc.).
examples: text: To what this ten years' tribute will amount,
That we have cast, but cannot compass it
By reason of the wars, that robb'd our store
ref: c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:
text: The Clearke of Chartam: hee can write and / reade, and cast accompt.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: I cannot yet cast account either with penne or Counters.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
text: They cast it up and found it agreed with the printed balance-sheet.
ref: 1859, David Morier Evans, “The Royal British Bank—Its Suspension and General Mismanagement”, in Facts, Failures and Frauds, London: Groombridge & Sons, page 337:
text: Obtain an aged list of accounts receivable balances at the financial year end and use CAATs to cast and cross-cast the schedule and agree the total to the general ledger control account for accounts receivable.
ref: 2007, George Puttick, Sandy van Esch, “Auditing Revenue Transactions and Balances”, in The Principles and Practice of Auditing, →ISBN, page 637:
text: Obtain a list of individual customers with balances outstanding at the year end, cast this and agree it to the trade receivables account.
ref: 2023, “Procedures”, in Audit and Assurance, Kaplan Financial Limited, →ISBN, page 354:
synonyms: word: sum
word: tally
word: add
word: add together
word: add up
word: cast
word: count up
word: foot up
word: reckon up
word: sum
word: sum up
word: summate
word: tally
word: tally up
word: tot
word: tot up
word: total
word: tote
word: tote up
qualifier: dated outside accounting
glosses: To add up (a column of figures, accounts etc.); cross-cast refers to adding up a row of figures.
examples: text: he is […] a perfect astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others, and mark their errant motions to his own use.
ref: , vol.1, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.309
text: John Gadbury confessed that Mrs Cellier, ‘the Popish Midwife’, had asked him to cast the King's nativity, although the astrology claimed to have refused to do so.
ref: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 332:
text: He did the washing up and stayed behind to watch the dinner cook while she hopped off with a friend to have her horoscope cast by another friend.
ref: 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p.1197
topics: astrology
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To calculate the astrological value of (a horoscope, birth etc.).
examples: text: [...] for the quene had cast to haue ben ageyne with kyng Arthur at the ferthest by ten of the clok / and soo was that tyme her purpoos.
[...] "for the queen had cast to have been again with King Arthur at the furthest by ten of the clock, and so was that time her purpose."
ref: 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XIX, Chapter i leaf 386v:
text: I wrapt my selfe in Palmers weed, / And cast to seeke him forth through daunger and great dreed.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: The cloister[…]had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house].
ref: 1685, William Temple, "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus:
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To plan, intend.
examples: text: The director cast the part carefully.
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To assign (a role in a play or performance).
examples: text: The director cast John Smith as King Lear.
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To assign a role in a play or performance to (an actor).
examples: text: King John cast his predecessor in a negative light to deflect criticism of his own questionable decisions.
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To describe in an opinionated way. Mostly used with a metaphor involving light.
examples: text: to cast about for reasons
text: She[…]cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 1:29:
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To consider; to turn or revolve in the mind; to plan.
examples: text: The government I cast upon my brother.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: Cast thy burden upon the Lord.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 4:22:
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To impose; to bestow; to rest.
examples: text: to be cast in damages
text: She was cast to be hanged.
ref: 1822, John Galt, The Provost:
text: Were the case referred to any competent judge, […]they would inevitably be cast.
ref: 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC:
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict.
examples: text: a casting voice
text: 24 July, 1659, Robert South, Interest Deposed, and Truth Restored
How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious!
qualifier: social
glosses: To predict, to decide, to plan.
To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide.
synonyms: word: decide
word: determine
word: accept
word: adopt
word: appoint
word: cast
word: choose
word: crave
word: decide
word: designate
word: desire
word: determine
word: elect
word: embrace
word: espouse
word: excerpt
word: extract
word: favor
word: opt
word: pick
word: poll
word: predestine
word: preponderate
word: prefer
word: separate
word: select
word: settle
word: single out
word: vote
word: winnow
examples: text: Sorcery is not the exclusive prerogative of the fetish-man, but is practised haphazardly by anyone who wishes to cast a spell upon another.
ref: 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 178:
glosses: To perform, bring forth (a magical spell or enchantment).
examples: text: The threat of Russian barbarism sweeping over the free world will cast its ominous shadow over us for many, many years.
ref: 1950 April 24, “A Global View”, in Time:
text: A sudden thought cast a gloom over his countenance.
ref: 1960, Lawrence Durrell, Clea:
text: The Poet and the Painter
Casting shadows on the water
As the sun plays on the infantry
Returning from the sea.
ref: 1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:
synonyms: word: pour
word: shed
word: alight
word: belight
word: beshine
word: bright
word: enlighten
word: fire
word: illume
word: illuminate
word: illumine
word: illustrate
word: irradiate
word: light
word: lighten
word: light up
word: luster
word: lustrate
word: shed light on
glosses: To throw (light etc.) on or upon something, or in a given direction.
examples: text: being with childe, they may without feare of accusation, spoyle and cast [translating avorter] their children, with certaine medicaments, which they have only for that purpose.
ref: , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.98
text: The abortion of a woman they describe by an horse kicking a wolf; because a mare will cast her foal if she tread in the track of that animal.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, chapter V, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 20:
glosses: To give birth to (a child) prematurely; to miscarry.
examples: text: One copy of the magnificent caveman, The Thinker, of which Rodin cast several examples in bronze, is seated now in front of the Detroit Museum of Art, where it was placed last autumn.
ref: 1923 March 24, “Rodin's Death”, in Time:
text: The practice of casting steel seems the most difficult of all the foundry arts, for despite every care, a percentage of the work is liable to be faulty and disappointing, but at Crewe, generally, a very good class of casting was turned out.
ref: 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:
glosses: To shape (molten metal etc.) by pouring into a mould; to make (an object) in such a way.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: To shape (molten metal etc.) by pouring into a mould; to make (an object) in such a way.
To stereotype or electrotype.
examples: text: Stuff is said to cast or warp when[…]it alters its flatness or straightness.
ref: c. 1680, Joseph Moxon, The Art of Joinery:
glosses: To twist or warp (of fabric, timber etc.).
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To bring the bows of a sailing ship on to the required tack just as the anchor is weighed by use of the headsail; to bring (a ship) round.
examples: text: Time to tell all the ballots cast by voters in the box.
glosses: To deposit (a ballot or voting paper); to formally register (one's vote).
examples: text: To display a number, you need to cast it to a string type.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To change a variable type from, for example, integer to real, or integer to text.
examples: text: He clambered on to an apron of rock that held its area out to the sun and began to cast across it. The direction of the wind changed and the scent touched him again.
ref: 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 50:
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: Of dogs, hunters: to spread out and search for a scent.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To set (a bone etc.) in a cast.
topics: Wicca
lifestyle
religion
glosses: To open a circle in order to begin a spell or meeting of witches.
examples: text: The streamer was the first to cast footage of the new game.
topics: media
glosses: To broadcast (video) over the Internet or a local network, especially to one's television.
Derived terms: aftercast
audiocast
beachcast
becast
bicast
broadcast
castability
castable
cast about
cast accounts
cast a chill
cast adrift
cast anchor
cast a pall
cast around
cast a shadow
cast aside
cast aspersions
cast away
cast back
cast caution to the wind
cast dispersions
cast down
caster
cast in concrete
casting
casting call
casting couch
casting director
cast in one's lot with
cast-in-place
cast in someone's teeth
cast iron
cast-iron
cast light on
cast loose
cast-me-down
cast not a clout till May be out
cast off
cast-off
cast oil on troubled waters
cast on
cast one's bread upon the waters
cast one's lot with
cast one's mind back
cast one's net far and wide
cast one's net wide
cast one's net wider
cast one's vote
castor
cast out
cast out nines
cast over
cast pearls before swine
cast round
cast snowballs
cast someone's water
cast something in someone's teeth
cast the first stone
cast up
cast up one's accounts
cloudcast
colorcast
continuous casting
cross-cast
die-cast
downcast
fan cast
forcast
forcasten
forecast
forncast
forthcast
let he who is without sin cast the first stone
let him that is without sin cast the first stone
let him who is without sin cast the first stone
miscast
ne'er cast a clout till May be out
newcast
offcast
old sins cast long shadows
opencast
outcast
overcast
podcast
precast
recast
roughcast
sand-cast
sidecast
slush-cast
surfcast
the die is cast
typecast
umbecast
umcast
uncast
undercast
upcast
videocast
vodcast