cook

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

(cooking) The head cook of a manor house.

(cooking) The degree or quality of cookedness of food.

Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab.

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

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.”

2011, Mackenzie Phillips, High on Arrival:

(slang) One who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth.

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

2011, Neal Hall, Hell To Pay: Hells Angels vs. The Million-Dollar Rat, page 36:

(slang) A session of manufacturing certain illegal drugs, especially meth.

A fish, the European striped wrasse, Labrus mixtus.

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.

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:

(chess) An unintended solution to a chess problem, considered to spoil the problem.

Sranan Tongo: kukru (via cook room)

Aukan: kukuu

Tok Pisin: kuk

→ Norman: couque

→ Portuguese: cuca

→ Thai: กุ๊ก (gúk)

→ Tokelauan: kuka

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”).

inh

Audio (UK) "to cook"

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

cuck (most accents without the foot-strut split)


cook

I'm cooking bangers and mash.

He's in the kitchen, cooking.

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.

2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

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

The dinner is cooking on the stove.

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

(intransitive, figuratively) To be uncomfortably hot.

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

2014, Randall Munroe, “Periodic Wall of the Elements”, in What If?, New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 41:

"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."

2017 July 6, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-01-20:

(transitive, slang) To kill, destroy, or otherwise render useless or inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation.

(transitive, slang) To execute by electric chair.

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

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

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

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

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

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...

1880, Joseph Addison with Richard John Green, “The newspaper”, in Essays of Joseph Addison, London: Roger de Coverly Club, page 154:

(transitive, slang) To tamper with or alter; to cook up.

Watch this band: they cook!

Crank up the Coltrane and start cooking!

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

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

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

On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking!

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

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

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

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

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.

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:

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 April 2, @WolfRMFC, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-10-05:

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 July 30, u/tokyo__driftwood, “How are we feeling about Earthquake ignite chieftain post-patch?”, in Reddit, r/PathOfExileBuilds, 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.

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

digging into a hole
dig oneself in a hole

(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).

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

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

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

Hol' up, let that boy cook!

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

You didn't have to cook him like that!

(transitive, slang) To defeat or humiliate.

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

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

en-verb

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

cooks (present singular third-person)
cooking (participle present)
cooked (participle past)
cooked (past)
cook (infinitive)

Troponyms

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

there's more than one way to cook an egg

→? Cantonese: 焗 (guk⁶)

→ Norman: coutchi

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.

coinage

Audio (UK) "to cook"


cook

Constant cuckoos cook on every side.

1599, Thomas Moffet, The Silkwormes, and their Flies, London: V.S. for Nicholas Ling, →OCLC:

(obsolete, rare, intransitive) To make the noise of the cuckoo.

cooks (present singular third-person)
cooking (participle present)
cooked (participle past)
cooked (past)

Audio (UK) "to cook"


cook

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

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

Audio (UK) "to cook"