cook up

phrasal 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

But as long as the media climate provides the perfect temperature for these shows to grow and expand, and until audiences are satiated to the point of nausea, creators will continue to cook up fresh ideas. —Yahya Salem, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025

The wildly popular Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus is always cooking up new, interactive fun for families — the latest being Ready Vet Go. —John Wenzel, Denver Post, 6 Nov. 2025

Community workers cooking up initiatives at the center of DEI have felt a seismic shift. —Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey, Bon Appetit Magazine, 3 Nov. 2025

Vikes are headed south and Lions had a bye week to cook up a blowout. —Miami Herald, 30 Oct. 2025

Rhymes for cook up

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