You’re
toast!
This is a
common expression to clarify that something or someone is kaput, defunct. The dictionary
definition says:
Be toast:
1. To be in serious trouble; to be ruined, finished, or defeated.
2. To be completely broken, wrecked, or destroyed.
It was
first used in a more formal sense in the 19th century.
‘Thinking he had got us fairly on toast, he
meant to blackmail us pretty freely.’
— John Guille Millais, A Breath from the Veldt, 1895
It was referenced obliquely in the 1984 film, ‘Ghostbusters’, written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The original script had, ‘I’m gonna turn this guy into toast’, but Bill Murray, playing the parapsychologist Dr Peter Venkman, extemporised instead, ‘This chick is toast’. This is believed to be the first time ‘toast’ was used as slang.
The following appeared three years later:
‘'' You're toast, man'' was a passage in The St. Petersburg Times of Oct. 1, 1987, the earliest citation the Oxford English Dictionary research staff has of this usage. ''Actually, the trendiest way of saying someone is finished is to say 'He's toast,' '' wrote the columnist George Will the following year.’
Seven
years ago we purchased a four-slice toaster. It functioned perfectly adequately
until yesterday, when only one half of the toaster would work. It could be said
that the toaster is now toast – well, half of it, anyway.
I've known the expression forever, but have never used it myself nor heard it used except in movies or on TV. I'm not sure what Australians say in place of it. At least half of your toaster still works, but buy a new one and keep it ready for when the working half dies.
ReplyDeleteI think an alternative is, 'You're dead' - bit severe, really!
DeleteInteresting. I never realised that the slang expression "you're toast" was relatively recent, although now I think about it, I don't remember it ever being used during my childhood.
ReplyDeleteCheers! Gail.
I don't know whether I've ever used this expression - maybe I have.
DeleteI didn't know that I could be "toast" ! I only know my toaster which I seldom used because Rick pretended that a toast cracked in his mind and when somebody is celebrated for a wedding or birthday we all lift our glass and bring a "toast" ! which should bring luck !
ReplyDeleteA drinkable toast is more to my taste!
DeleteWe have had a two-slice Dualit toaster for over twenty five years now. We have replaced one heating element since then and it still works like a dream. Expensive but very reliable.
ReplyDeleteDualit toasters are expensive and the model we've got is not repairable, so we'll soldier on with half of it for now.
DeleteIt seems like you can still toast two slices of bread simultaneously. Do you need more toasting slots? Close to 11pm here and I am toast.
ReplyDeleteYes, we shall have to cut our toast consumption. It would probably be quite good for us!
DeleteTry taking it to your nearest Repair Cafe - it might turn out to be something simple. Toast crumbs have a way of getting into bits they were not meant to, and it is amazing what having some who knows where and how to clear them out can achieve. xxx F (and Mr T)
ReplyDeleteThank you. A repair cafe has opened here in recent weeks. I suspect, though, that the MOTH will have a go. He's quite useful like that ;-) x x
ReplyDeleteI had no idea "toast" in that definition was so recently coined. I feel like I've been using it forever. My toaster has been faithfully browning my breakfast bread for over forty years. For full disclosure, I should say I ate cold cereal instead for a number of those years, but I still think it deserves a medal :)
ReplyDeleteYour half-working toaster is an example of things that utterly frustrate me - why can't things just break completely and then I'd know exactly what to do with them. As it is, I long for a fully-functioning version but am too sentimental to get rid of the old one!
It is annoying when things just linger, isn't it?
DeleteI know the expression, it just surprises me that it isn't older than that! xxx
ReplyDeleteI'd never thought about it until the toaster half-broke! x x
ReplyDelete