half-baked

[ haf-beykt, hahf- ]

adjective

1. insufficiently cooked.
2. not completed; insufficiently planned or prepared:

   a half-baked proposal for tax reform.

3. lacking mature judgment or experience; unrealistic.

half-baked

adjective

1. insufficiently baked
2. informal.
   foolish; stupid
3. informal.
   poorly planned or conceived

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-baked¹

First recorded in 1615–25

Example Sentences

Sometimes, there are half-baked attempts to claim they want men to control themselves, but that's more a P.R. move than a sincere effort.

From Salon

“We’re not even in the right ballpark,” said Quan, who previously told the county supervisors that he thought the ethics reforms in Measure G were “half-baked.”

From Los Angeles Times

One by one, four black men find themselves inexplicably transported to a world that resembles some half-baked new video game that hasn’t yet worked out all the kinks.

From Los Angeles Times

What is about to happen will very likely be even more damaging, as we move from fragmentary news reporting into the realm of speculation, name-calling, finger-pointing, conspiracy theory and half-baked political forecasting.

From Salon

Others agree: it has been called "half-baked" and a device that "fails at almost everything" by reviewers.

From BBC

Related Words

• idiotic
• ill-conceived
• witless