Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

      My sober evening let the tankard bless, With toast
      embrowned, and fragrant nutmeg fraught.     --T. Warton.

   2. A lady in honor of whom persons or a company are invited
      to drink; -- so called because toasts were formerly put
      into the liquor, as a great delicacy.

            It now came to the time of Mr. Jones to give a toast
            . . . who could not refrain from mentioning his dear
            Sophia.                               --Fielding.

   3. Hence, any person, especially a person of distinction, in
      honor of whom a health is drunk; hence, also, anything so
      commemorated; a sentiment, as ``The land we live in,''
      ``The day we celebrate,'' etc.

   {Toast rack}, a small rack or stand for a table, having
      partitions for holding slices of dry toast.