half-baked

• half baked
• halfbaked

half- +‎ baked

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half-baked (comparative more half-baked, superlative most half-baked)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: Partially cooked by heating in an oven.

   When the casserole is half-baked, take it out and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

2. (idiomatic, informal, frequently derisive) incomplete; (of an idea or scheme) not fully planned or carefully considered, ill-conceived, unsound or badly thought-out; (of a person) foolish or having no common sense.

   The guy had some half-baked idea for getting rich in the stock market.

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 592:

     "You're cheap. Cheap education, cheap ideas, a half-baked bloody nobody."

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     She came skipping to me just now, clapping her little hands and bleating about how very, very happy she was, dear Mrs Travers. The silly young geezer. I nearly conked her one with my trowel. I'd always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn't even put her in the oven.

• half-assed (vulgar)
• half-cocked
• half-measure