Meaning of cook in English

cook

verb

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/kʊk/ us

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/kʊk/

When you cook food, you prepare it to be eaten by heating it in a particular way, such as baking or boiling, and when food cooks, it is heated until it is ready to eat:

I don't cook meat very often.

[ + two objects ] He cooked us a huge dinner./He cooked a huge dinner for us.

Let the fish cook for half an hour before you add the wine.

More examples

Don't cook vegetables for too long - they'll lose all their goodness.
Wrap the chicken in foil and cook it for two hours.
Vicky cooks really well but she's rather messy.
Do you prefer cooking with electricity or gas?
I'm a terrible cook - nothing I try to make turns out the way it's supposed to.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Preparing food using heat

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Idioms

be cooking
be cooking with gas
cook sb's goose
cook the books
what's cooking?

Phrasal verb

cook sth up

cook

noun [ C ]

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/kʊk/ us

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/kʊk/

someone who prepares and cooks food:

She's a wonderful cook.

More examples

He's intelligent, witty, a loving husband, and an excellent cook into the bargain.
The cook brought in a fresh batch of homemade cakes.
Alex is one of the best cooks I know - he could really be a professional.
I'll ask the cook to do rib of lamb for Sunday lunch.
This is the cook's night off, so we're just having cold meat and salad.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

People who make & serve food

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Idiom

too many cooks spoil the broth

(Definition of cook from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

cook | American Dictionary

cook

verb [ I/T ]

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/kʊk/

to prepare food by heating it in a particular way, or (of food) to be prepared in this way:

[ T ] I’ll cook the steaks on the grill.

[ I ] Who’s cooking tonight, you or me?

[ I ] The potatoes are cooking.

cook

noun [ C ] us

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/kʊk/

He’s an excellent cook.

Phrasal verbs

cook up something

(Definition of cook from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

cook | Business English

cook

verb [ T ]

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/kʊk/ us

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cook the books informal

to give false information in a company's accounts in order to gain an advantage:

By cooking the books, directors grossly misled investors about the company's financial health.

(Definition of cook from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of cook

cook

The cooking methods varied from cooking on camping stoves to barbecues.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

While it was being cooked and giving off delicious odors, the men talked and told stories and sang songs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

More examples Fewer examples

How cooked are the processes involved in (deliberate or voluntary) mental imagery?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both narratives then emphasize the time taken to cook the hog : ' 'all night ' ' in the former, the ' ' whole night' ' in the latter.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One of these consumption goods is cooked food, which requires raw food, fuel, water, and labor as inputs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Meals would be cooked, linen washed and clothes made and repaired by public caterers, laundry workers and needlewomen.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Outbreaks linked to commercially cooked and distributed products are uncommon.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Two men who had become homeless after being widowed bought recipe books and learned to cook for the first time in their lives.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The centre has 3.5 permanent posts - the manager, a cook and two assistants.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Cooking temperatures were recorded and all foods were adequately cooked.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Figure 4 shows the average number of cooking fuels per household in each sector and 4 per cent quantile.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Accidental human infections with anisakid larvae can occur, following the consumption of poorly cooked infected fish.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Various activities took place at the camp including the preparation and consumption of bread doughsticks cooked over a barbecue.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Following the manager's instructions, the cook is holding his hand above his shoulder in a towel.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The union complained that so few cooks could hardly provide food and act as servants for the ten guards assigned to them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.