paste

From Middle English paste, from Old French paste (modern pâte), from Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá). Doublet of pasta. The verb is from the noun.^[1] Middle English had pasten (“to make a paste of; bake in a pastry”),^[1] also from the noun;^[2][3] compare Latin pistō and Medieval Latin pastillātus.^[3]

• IPA^(key): /peɪst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophone: paced

paste (countable and uncountable, plural pastes)

1. A soft moist mixture, in particular:
   1. One of flour, fat, or similar ingredients used in making pastry.
   2. (obsolete) Pastry.
      • 1860, Charles Dickens, Captain Murderer:

        And that day month, he had the paste rolled out, and cut the fair twin's head off, and chopped her in pieces, and peppered her, and salted her, and put her in the pie, and sent it to the baker's, and ate it all, and picked the bones.

   3. One of pounded foods, such as fish paste, liver paste, or tomato paste.
   4. One used as an adhesive, especially for putting up wallpapers, etc.

      Hyponym: wheat paste

      Coordinate term: cement

      Near-synonyms: glue, adhesive

2. (physics) A substance that behaves as a solid until a sufficiently large load or stress is applied, at which point it flows like a fluid
3. A hard lead-containing glass, or an artificial gemstone made from this glass.
   • 2023 March 10, Alex Vadukul, quoting Nan Goldin, “Nan Goldin Is Ready for Oscar Night”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Yesterday I bought some paste, which is a nickname for fake diamonds, and they were from Bergdorf’s.

4. (obsolete) Pasta.
   • 1766, Tobias George Smollett, Travels through France and Italy: Containing observations on character, customs, religion, government, police, commerce, arts, and antiquities. With a particular description of the town, territory, and climate of Nice. To which is added, A register of the weather, kept during a residence of eighteen months in that city, Volume 2‎^[2] (travel), page 35:

     This is likewise the market for their oil, and the paste called macaroni, of which they make a good quantity.

   • 1792, Arnaud Berquin, The childrens'^[sic] companion: or, entertaining instructor for the youth of both sexes; designed, to excite attention and inculcate virtue. Selected from the works of Berquin, Genlis, Day, and others‎^[3], page 75:

     Vermicelli for soups, is paste from Italy; so called because it looks like worms. My macaroni, paste from Italy—My salop, a root ground to powder—the root of one kind of orchis.

5. (mineralogy) The mineral substance in which other minerals are embedded.

• → Cebuano: pasta
• → Malay: pes

paste (third-person singular simple present pastes, present participle pasting, simple past and past participle pasted)

1. (transitive) To stick with paste; to cause to adhere by or as if by paste.
2. (transitive, computing) To insert a piece of media (e.g. text, picture, audio, video) previously copied or cut from somewhere else.

Probably an alteration of baste (“beat”) influenced by some sense of the noun.^[4]

• IPA^(key): /peɪst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophone: paced

paste (third-person singular simple present pastes, present participle pasting, simple past and past participle pasted)

1. (transitive, slang) To strike or beat someone or something.
   • 1943, William Saroyan, The Human Comedy, chapter 23:

     He got up and pasted Byfield in the mouth.

2. (transitive, slang) To defeat decisively or by a large margin.

Unadapted borrowing from Italian paste (“pastas”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæsteɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑsteɪ/

paste

1. (rare) plural of pasta

• septa-, tapes, septa, aspet, pâtés, sepat, tepas, Pesta, spate, speat, patés, stape, pates, peats

• IPA^(key): [ˈpastɛ]

paste

1. second-person plural imperative of pást

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɑs.tə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pas‧te

paste f (plural pastes, no diminutive)

1. obsolete spelling of pasta (“paste”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

paste

1. inflection of passen:
   1. singular past indicative
   2. (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive

• IPA^(key): /ˈpas.te/
• Rhymes: -aste
• Hyphenation: pà‧ste

paste f pl

1. plural of pasta

• pesta, spate

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpaːs.tɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpas.te]

pāste

1. vocative masculine singular of pāstus (“fed, nourished; having eaten, consumed; grazed, pastured; satisfied, gratified”)

From Old French paste, from Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá).

paste (plural pastes)

1. dough for the making of bread or pastry
2. food; a meal
3. a dough or paste used as a sealant, an adhesive, or a casing in which to cook medicinal substances

“paste, n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá).

paste oblique singular, m (oblique plural pastes, nominative singular pastes, nominative plural paste)

1. dough; paste
2. pastry

• pastaierie

• Middle French: paste
  • French: pâte
• → Middle English: paste
  • English: paste
    • → Cebuano: pasta
    • → Malay: pes
  • Scots: paste, paist

• paste on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

paste

1. inflection of pastar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

paste (Cyrillic spelling пасте)

1. inflection of pasta:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaste/ [ˈpas.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -aste
• Syllabification: pas‧te

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

paste m (plural pastes)

1. (Mexico) pasty, pastie (a type of pie or turnover)
2. loofah (plant in genus Luffa)

• paxte (loofah)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

paste

1. inflection of pastar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “paste”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

paste (VII (inanimate-subject intransitive))

1. To swell, to rise (like dough).

• pèhpastèk (“rice”)

• Rementer, Jim with Pearson, Bruce L. (2005), “pèhpastèk”, in Grant Leneaux, Raymond Whritenour, editors, The Lenape Talking Dictionary, The Lenape Language Preservation Project