Word: cast Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /kɑːst/, /kast/, /kæst/ 1. An act of throwing. 2. The number rolled on a die when it is thrown. 3. An instance of throwing out a fishing line. Example: I went out on the timber boom and made a few casts, but with little success. 4. Something which has been thrown, dispersed etc. Example: a cast of scatter'd dust 5. A small mass of earth "thrown off" or excreted by a worm. Example: The area near the stream was covered with little bubbly worm casts. 6. The collective group of actors performing a play or production together. Contrasted with crew. Example: He’s in the cast of Oliver. Example: The cast was praised for a fine performance. 7. The casting procedure. Example: The men got into position for the cast, two at the ladle, two with long rods, all with heavy clothing. 8. An object made in a mould. Example: The cast would need a great deal of machining to become a recognizable finished part. 9. A supportive and immobilising device used to help mend broken bones. Example: The doctor put a cast on the boy’s broken arm. 10. The mould used to make cast objects. Example: A plaster cast was made from his face. 11. The number of hawks (or occasionally other birds) cast off at one time; a pair. Example: As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight / An an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing […] Example: Louis XIV was keen, employing a total hawking personnel of 175 and adding a fourth cast of gyrfalcons to hunt hares in 1682 […]. 12. A squint. Example: The image of the affected eye is clearer and in consequence the diplopy more striking the less the cast of the eye; hence the double vision will be noticed by the patient before the misdirection of the eye attracts the attention of those about him. Example: Arriving in Brittany, the Woodville exiles found a sallow young man, with dark hair curled in the shoulder-length fashion of the time and a penchant for expensively dyed black clothes, whose steady gaze was made more disconcerting by a cast in his left eye – such that while one eye looked at you, the other searched for you. 13. Visual appearance. Example: Her features had a delicate cast to them. Example: Using a tungsten-balanced film outdoors results in a blue cast to the photo. 14. The form of one's thoughts, mind etc. Example: The cast of mind which prompted the plan was permanent, and in it are to be found both the strength and the weakness of Petty's character. Example: Young Wilcox’s rejoinder, which impressed my uncle enough to make him recall and record it verbatim, was of a fantastically poetic cast which must have typified his whole conversation, and which I have since found highly characteristic of him. 15. Obsolete form of caste (“hereditary social class of South Asia”). Labels: alt-of, obsolete Example: The brahmin's cast is higher than any other cast. 16. Animal and insect remains which have been regurgitated by a bird. 17. A group of crabs. 18. The measurement of the angle of a shotgun stock from a top-view center line, used to align the shotgun to the shooter's eye. Example: Cast is the measurement of the central line of the gun and the stock’s butt. If the butt is tilted slightly to the left of the central line, it’s called “cast on.” If the butt is tilted slightly to the right of the central line, it’s called “cast off.” 19. A chance or attempt at something. 20. Assistance given by transporting a person or lightening their labour. Labels: archaic, colloquial Example: The superiors rode în a spring-van, and the rest in the wagon, while I walked the whole distance. None of them had the civility to give me a cast forward on either vehicle, […] Example: boatman, just give us a cast over to the other side of the water.