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

"The ideas were good, but they were half-baked," one senior staffer explained.

From The Daily Beast

Then there were those songs that were either too half-baked or half-hearted to even fool us into turning them into smash hits.

From The Daily Beast

“When you see Half Baked 2, make no mistake about it, I have completely run out of money,” he joked.

From The Daily Beast

But the anti-Stalinism competes with half-baked fantasies about a better tomorrow.

From The Daily Beast

More than any other American institution, baseball most wholeheartedly welcomes half-baked history and curdled lore.

From The Daily Beast

Or are all you Mentorians so gutless that you believe any half-baked folk tale the Lhari pass off on you?

From Project Gutenberg

It is true that she regarded her as a half-baked natural, but she would never let anyone but herself say so.

From Project Gutenberg

Not in all his career had he ever been known to discuss in print his theories, or deductions, or half-baked conclusion.

From Project Gutenberg

This is characteristic of an excess in education; of the half baked mind overtrained.

From Project Gutenberg

He believed in sudden conversion, a belief which may be right, but which is peculiarly attractive to a half-baked mind.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• idiotic
• ill-conceived
• witless