cook

• IPA^(key): /kʊk/

  • Audio (US):

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  • Audio (UK) "to cook":

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  • Audio (General Australian):

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• (some speakers from Northern England and Ireland) IPA^(key): /kuːk/^[1]
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /kʉk/
• Homophone: cuck (most accents without the foot-strut split)

• Rhymes: -ʊk

From Middle English cook, from Old English cōc (“a cook”), from Latin cocus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”).

Cognate with Low German kokk, Dutch kok, German Koch, Danish kok, Norwegian kokk, Swedish kock, Icelandic kokkur (“cook”). Also compare Proto-West Germanic *kokōn (“to cook”).

cook (plural cooks)

1. (cooking) A person who prepares food.

   Synonym: cooker

   Hyponyms: chef, cordon bleu

   I'm a terrible cook, so I eat a lot of frozen dinners.

2. (cooking) The head cook of a manor house.
3. (cooking) The degree or quality of cookedness of food.
4. (slang) One who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth.

   Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab.

   • 2008, Mel Bradshaw, Victim Impact:

     By late October, the pressure on the Dark Arrows' ecstasy cook had eased. Other suppliers had moved in with product.

   • 2011, Mackenzie Phillips, High on Arrival:

     Owsley Stanley was a pioneer LSD cook, and the Purple Owsley pill from his now-defunct lab was Dad's prized possession, a rare, potent, druggie collector's item, the alleged inspiration for the Hendrix song “Purple Haze.”

5. (slang) A session of manufacturing certain illegal drugs, especially meth.
   • 2011, Neal Hall, Hell To Pay: Hells Angels vs. The Million-Dollar Rat, page 36:

     Punko told Plante he wanted to use a full barrel for the next cook.

6. A fish, the European striped wrasse, Labrus mixtus.
7. (chess) An unintended solution to a chess problem, considered to spoil the problem.
   • 2003 June, Pal Benko, “Endgame Lab”, in Chess Life, volume 58, number 6, New Windsor, N.Y.: United States Chess Federation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 49:

     The original endgame was one file to the right (Kf1, Kb5 etc.). But there is a cook after 1. c6 dxc6 2. d6 cxd6 3. h4 gxh3 e.p. 4. gxh3 Ka4! 5. h4 b5. My version eliminates the cook.

(food preparation):

• chef, culinary artist (skilful or lead cook), magirist, magirologist (skilful cook, obs.); sous-chef, prep cook (assistant cook); line cook (team cook); cookess, cookeress (female, uncommon)

(head cook of a manor house):

• scullery maid, kitchen maid

• Sranan Tongo: kukru (via cook room)
  • Aukan: kukuu
• Tok Pisin: kuk
• → Norman: couque
• → Portuguese: cuca
• → Thai: กุ๊ก (gúk)
• → Tokelauan: kuka

From Middle English coken, from the noun cook. In the slang sense of "proceed with some plan", coined by American rapper from California Lil B in 2010 and popularized in viral tweets and TikToks in mid-2022.^[2]

cook (third-person singular simple present cooks, present participle cooking, simple past and past participle cooked)

2. (transitive, intransitive) To prepare food for eating by heating it, often combining with other ingredients.

   I'm cooking bangers and mash.

   He's in the kitchen, cooking.

   • 2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better‎^[1], Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

     You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

3. (intransitive) To be cooked.

   The dinner is cooking on the stove.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To be uncomfortably hot.

   Synonyms: bake, stew

   Look at that poor dog shut up in that car on a day like today - it must be cooking in there.

5. (transitive, slang) To kill, destroy, or otherwise render useless or inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation.
   • 2014, Randall Munroe, “Periodic Wall of the Elements”, in What If?, New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 41:

     You would die from what we might call "extremely acute radiation poisoning" – that is, you would be cooked.

   • 2017 July 6, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary‎^[2], archived from the original on 20 January 2024:

     "What's coming?" "Dunno yet. Cindy! Active scanning! Pulse hard, but don't cook any friendlies." "We have sensors that can cook people?" "Another reason why warship combat is not an indoor sport."

6. (transitive, slang) To execute by electric chair.

   Synonym: fry

7. (transitive, military slang) To hold on to a grenade briefly after igniting the fuse, so that it explodes almost immediately after being thrown.

   Synonym: cook off

   I always cook my frags, in case they try to grab one and throw it back.

8. (transitive) To concoct or prepare.

   My brother was locked up for cooking meth in his basement.

   • 2006, Frank Spalding, Methamphetamine: The Dangers of Crystal Meth, page 47:

     The process of cooking meth can leave residue on surfaces all over the home, exposing all of its occupants to the drug.

9. (transitive, slang) To tamper with or alter; to cook up.
   • 1880, Joseph Addison with Richard John Green, “The newspaper”, in Essays of Joseph Addison, London: Roger de Coverly Club, page 154:

     They all of them receive the same advices from abroad, and very often in the same words; but their way of cooking it is so different, that there is no citizen, who has an eye to the public good, who can leave the coffee-house with peace of mind...

10. (intransitive, jazz, slang) To play or improvise in an inspired and rhythmically exciting way. (From 1930s jive talk.)

    Watch this band: they cook!

    Crank up the Coltrane and start cooking!

    • 1957, Miles Davis quoted by Ira Gitler, liner notes to Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige LP 7094:

      This album is called Cookin’ at Miles’ request. He said, “After all, that’s what we did – came in and cooked.”

11. (intransitive, music, slang) To play music vigorously.

    On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking!

    • 2012, “Review: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra won't stand still”, in Los Angeles Times:

      The tempos were swift. The orchestra cooked, reading [conductor] Kahane's mind and swinging with him as one.

13. (intransitive, slang, humorous) To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole).

    Hol' up, let that boy cook!

    2. (intransitive, slang, humorous) To proceed with some advantageous course of action; (more generally) to be successful.

       We had to deal with some problems at first, but now we're cooking.

       • 1977 August 27, Steve Savage, Susan "Suki" Eagan, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Suki, But Were Too Distracted In Chaps to Ask Her”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 8, page 9:

         My bar was built by Frazier, Gary Manson, Robert Feck, Jeff Picoli — that's who built my bar. When I hired those people, that's when my bar started cookin'. 'Cause Frazier gets along with anybody — he has a magnetic personality, and he can make the worst piece of shit feel like king for a day.

       • 2023 April 2, @WolfRMFC, Twitter‎^[3], archived from the original on 5 October 2023:

         Asensio as AMF might just be the truth man. Bro is cooking and now he has added a goal to top it all off.

       • 2023 July 30, u/tokyo__driftwood, “How are we feeling about Earthquake ignite chieftain post-patch?”, in Reddit‎^[4], r/PathOfExileBuilds, archived from the original on 5 October 2023:

         WAIT YOU'RE ACTUALLY COOKING RN. Emberwake ring. Quick math says that's about 21% more damage than just using tawhoa. Ring also gives fire damage and ignite chance, which is great.

       • 2023 August 6, Noel Sanchez, “Lakers News: Re-Signed LA Starter Reveals He Was Prioritizing A Free Agency Return”, in Sports Illustrated‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: Arena Group Holdings, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-05:

         With the shot clock winding down, LA's superstars got accustomed to deferring to [Austin] Reaves and letting him cook for either open jumpers or moves that ultimately led to and-one's and free-throw attempts.

    3. (intransitive, slang, derogatory, Australia) To develop insane or fringe ideas.

       The furlough of workers during The Lockdowns left many with a conspiracy bent ample time to cook.

14. (transitive, slang) To defeat or humiliate.

    He didn't prepare for the debate at all, so his opponent cooked him hard.

    You didn't have to cook him like that!

15. (transitive, slang) To cause to be cooked, i.e. to put in a hopeless situation.

    This new labor law is really cooking working-class people.

• (to prepare or plan something): concoct, contrive, devise, make up, plan, prepare

• Troponyms: bake, barbecue, boil, braise, fry, grill, microwave, poach, roast, scramble, steam, stew
• See also Thesaurus:cook

• →? Cantonese: 焗 (guk⁶)
• → Norman: coutchi

Imitative.

cook (third-person singular simple present cooks, present participle cooking, simple past and past participle cooked)

1. (obsolete, rare, intransitive) To make the noise of the cuckoo.
   • 1599, Thomas Moffet, The Silkwormes, and their Flies, London: V.S. for Nicholas Ling, →OCLC:

     Constant cuckoos cook on every side.

Unknown; possibly related to chuck.

cook (third-person singular simple present cooks, present participle cooking, simple past and past participle cooked)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To throw.

   Synonyms: fling, hurl; see also Thesaurus:throw

   • 1787, Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary: With a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions, London: Printed for S. Hooper, →OCLC, page 37:

     Cook. To throw. Cook me that ball, throw me that ball. Glou.

• cok, coke, koke, cuyke, cuke, cooke

From Old English cōc, from Vulgar Latin cocus, from Latin coquus.

• IPA^(key): /koːk/

cook (plural cookes)

1. cook, chef, restaurateur
2. (figurative) nourisher, nourishment

• English: cook
  • Sranan Tongo: kukru (via cook room)
    • Aukan: kukuu
  • Tok Pisin: kuk
  • → Norman: couque
  • → Portuguese: cuca
  • → Thai: กุ๊ก (gúk)
  • → Tokelauan: kuka
• Scots: cuke, cuik

• “cọ̄k, n.(6).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.