cook up

verb

cooked up; cooking up; cooks up

1

: to prepare (food) for eating especially quickly

I can cook up some hamburgers.

He cooked this whole meal up in less than 30 minutes.

2

: to invent (something, such as an idea, excuse, etc.) to deal with a particular situation

They cooked up a scheme to fool their neighbor.

You'll have to cook an excuse up quickly.

Examples of cook up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Los Angeles Dodgers are awaiting their divisional series matchup to kick off their pursuit of a third consecutive World Series title, and Vans has cooked up a duo of sneakers to outfit fans for another postseason run. — Ian Servantes, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2026

What the movie thrives on is the farcical and, all too often, horrendous reach of human error; surreal episodes are not cooked up but happened upon or stumbled over. — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026

Well, the folks behind the nascent NWSL squad seem to have something cooked up for Monday. — Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 25 Sep. 2026

Vripack has cooked up something very sweet for two seafarers. — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 23 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for cook up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup