Chef
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
"The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board."
- 2 a professional cook wordnet
- 3 The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
"The cause of the disturbance, it appeared, was the angry little chef of Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment."
- 4 Any cook.
"My partner is the chef of the household, while I do most of the cleaning."
- 5 One who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook. slang
"But trying to stop all the nation's meth chefs makes as much sense as building a wall along the Mexican border."
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- 6 A reliquary in the shape of a head. historical
- 1 To work as a chef; to prepare and cook food professionally. informal, stative
"It was Brick who talked on alumni relations with the active chapters and who cheffed at our steak fry (more of that later) and Mrs. Cowles who took over […]"
- 2 To stab with a knife, to shank. Multicultural-London-English, transitive
"He got cheffed up proper."
- 3 To impress others. Internet
"thinkin' that I be cheffin'.'"
Example
More examples"It doesn't taste all that great for all the effort and technique the chef put into it."
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine), from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin capus (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (possibly related to English cap (“head covering”)). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, and chief through Latin, and head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.