Toast

Origin of: Toast

Toast

American slang for someone who is ruined, destroyed, in trouble, or even dead, depending on the context. It dates in this sense from the mid-1980s, from the notion of being ‘toasted’ or ‘burnt’, but perhaps has links to the older, late 19th century, figurative expression, ‘to serve someone up on toast’ i.e. to doom or ruin someone. See also Warm as toast