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

Artificial intelligence companies have been borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars, selling fresh stock, and cooking up novel and potentially risky methods of financing. — Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2026

LeBron hunting one last ring with the Sixers feels cooked up specifically to ruin New York's party. — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 Oct. 2026

Ryu knows the real truth about Ken but keeps it to himself and has become a loner, a man purposely hiding from his past cooking up a new identity in the food world. — Pete Hammond, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2026

Dine-in, take-out or just bring home fresh pasta to cook up in your own kitchen. — Amy Drew Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026

Rhymes for cook up

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