cook

noun

\ ˈku̇k

Definition of cook

(Entry 1 of 3)

1 : a person who prepares food for eating

2 : a technical or industrial process comparable to cooking food also : a substance so processed

cook

verb

cooked; cooking; cooks

Definition of cook (Entry 2 of 3)

intransitive verb

1 : to prepare food for eating especially by means of heat French cooking

2 : to undergo the action of being cooked the rice is cooking now

3 : occur, happen find out what was cooking in the committee

4 : to perform, do, or proceed well the jazz quartet was cooking along the party cooked right through the night

transitive verb

1 : concoct, fabricate —usually used with up cooked up a scheme

2 : to prepare for eating by a heating process

3 : falsify, doctor cooked the books with phony spending cuts and accounting gimmickry— Colleen O'Connor

4 : to subject to the action of heat or fire

cook one's goose

: to make one's failure or ruin certain

Cook

biographical name

\ ˈku̇k

Definition of Cook (Entry 3 of 3)

James 1728–1779 English navigator and explorer

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Examples of cook in a Sentence

Noun

the hearty meals prepared by the cook at summer camp

Verb

Cook the onions over low heat. She cooked a great meal. The fish was cooked in a white wine sauce. Carrots can be cooked, but they are often eaten raw. We're too busy to cook at home. He enjoys cooking on the weekends. The rice is still cooking, but it will be ready in 10 minutes. There's something cooking, but he won't say what.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Add the quinoa and cook for 2 minutes to lightly toast it, then stir in the almond butter mixture. — Zoe Ruffner, Vogue, "Sakara Brings Healthy Eating Home With Their New Made-for-Instagram Cookbook," 19 Mar. 2019 Turn the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring the crumbs, until toasty and crisp all the way through, about 10 minutes. — Chrissy Teigen, Good Housekeeping, "Avocado with Toasty Crumbs," 14 Jan. 2019 Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened and starting to color, three to four minutes. — David Tanis, The Seattle Times, "A humble feast begins with lentils," 7 Jan. 2019 The Residence: This series will be based on The Residence, a nonfiction book about the goings-on inside the White House from the perspective of staff like maids, butlers, cooks, florists, and doormen. — Tess Kornfeld, Glamour, "These Are the Eight Shows Shonda Rhimes Is Launching on Netflix," 21 July 2018 Rhiannon McConnell and Louie McConnell, 21, is a model — and an amateur cook, with the help of her one-year-old son, Louie. — Ronan Mckenzie, Allure, "18 Celebrity Mothers, Daughters, and Sons Talk About Beauty — And What It Means to Live a Good Life," 18 July 2018 The slow cooker is more intuitive for most cooks than the Instant Pot. — Katie Workman, The Seattle Times, "Which to buy? A slow cooker or Instant Pot?," 29 Mar. 2019 Any home cook or aspiring chef is aware of the value of a good knife. — Popular Mechanics, "These Laser-Sharp Japanese Knives Are a Kitchen Staple," 14 Mar. 2019 The five-piece set retails for $395 together, but each piece can also be bought individually (starting at $45), so that everyone from the new-and-nervous home cook to the at-home culinary master can enjoy. — Hanna Howard, Teen Vogue, "Great Jones Cofounders Sierra Tishgart and Maddy Moelis Share Their Path to Entrepreneurship," 13 Nov. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

All of these theories are plausible, given the wild plot lines the show's creators have cooked up in the past. — Glamour, "This Game of Thrones Theory Suggests Dany's Dragons Are Hiding a Huge Secret," 8 May 2019 For the past seven months, there’s been nothing but silence about what Glover and the company were cooking up. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Surprise! Donald Glover Drops an Adidas Originals Collection of Canvas Sneakers," 18 Apr. 2019 After leaving her job on Wall Street, founder Melissa Butler began cooking up clean formulas completely free of chemicals in her home. — Maya Allen, Marie Claire, "The 15 Best Black-Owned Beauty Brands I'll Never Stop Talking About," 11 Feb. 2019 While Hollywood is busy cooking up a Netflix version of the scammer story that kicked off the summer, it's actually been dealing with a con artist of its own. — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, "The Queen Of Hollywood Scams Just Told Anna Delvey To Hold Her Beer," 11 July 2018 Bazzi has DJs and producers around the country cooking up cool rinses for his biggest hits. — Kat Bein, Billboard, "The 5 Best Bazzi Remixes," 6 July 2018 DA Johnson and Sasser’s defense attorney had cooked up a consent order for a $5,000 bond. — Bill Torpy, ajc, "Torpy at Large: When a murderous cop has law-and-order enablers," 5 July 2018 Stagnant, still, cloudless hot weather clapped itself on top of the region and cooked up a steamy layer of ozone through the weekend and into Monday. — Anne Saker, Cincinnati.com, "The reason Cincy's air is bad? It's summertime, and the ozone is baking," 18 June 2018 Adidas, which hopes that all our like buttons may be smashed, has cooked up a shoe and tweaked it just enough to turn it into Instagram bait on par with cute puppies. — Cam Wolf, GQ, "The Rules of the Gym, According to the Hot Dudes of ‘Insecure’," 15 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cook.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.