Cook

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kÊŠk/
• (UK dialectal) IPA: /kuk/

• Rhymes: -ÊŠk

From Middle English, from Old English cōc ("a cook"), from Proto-Germanic *kukaz ("cook"), from Latin coquus ("cook"), from coquō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- ("to cook, become ripe"). Cognate with Low German kokk ("cook"), Dutch kok ("cook"), German Koch ("cook"), Danish kok ("cook"), Norwegian kokk ("cook"), Swedish kock ("cook"), Icelandic kokkur ("cook"), Albanian kuq ("to fry, cook").

The verb is from Middle English coken, from the noun.

Noun

1. (cooking) A person who prepares food for a living.
2. (cooking) The head cook of a manor house
3. (slang) One who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth.Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab.
• Mel Bradshaw, Victim ImpactBy late October, the pressure on the Dark Arrows' ecstasy cook had eased. Other suppliers had moved in with product.
• 2011, Mackenzie Phillips, High on ArrivalOwsley 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.”
4. A fish, the European striped wrasse.

Synonyms

• (food preparation for a living) chef

Hyponyms

• (food preparation for a living) cordon bleu

Coordinate terms

• sous-chef
• line cook
• prep cook
• chef

• scullery maid
• kitchen maid

Derived terms

• cookbook
• cookery
• cooking
• cook the books
• cook up
• cookware

Full definition of cook

Verb

1. (transitive) To prepare (food) for eating by heating it, often by combining it with other ingredients.I'm cooking bangers and mash.
2. (intransitive) To prepare (unspecified) food for eating by heating it, often by combining it with other ingredients.He's in the kitchen, cooking.
3. (intransitive) To be being cooked.The dinner is cooking on the stove.
4. (intransitive, figuratively) To be uncomfortably hot.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 hold onto (a grenade) briefly after igniting the fuse, so that it explodes almost immediately after being thrown.''I always cook my frags, in case they try to grab one and throw it back.
6. To concoct or prepare.
• 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.
7. To tamper with or alter; to cook up.
• AddisonThey 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.

Synonyms

• (to be uncomfortably hot) bake, stew
• (hold on to a grenade) cook off

Hypernyms

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

Hyponyms

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

Imitative.

Verb

1. (obsolete, rare) To make the noise of the cuckoo.
• 1599, The SilkwormsConstant cuckoos cook on every side.

Unknown.

Verb

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To throw.
• GroseCook me that ball.----