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Cook

//kʊk// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    An English surname originating as an occupation for a cook or seller of cooked food. Famously held by James Cook, English captain and explorer of the Pacific Ocean, and for whom the Cook Islands, Cook Strait and Mount Cook were named. countable
  2. 2
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; A township in Sac County, Iowa. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; A township in Decatur County, Kansas. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; A minor city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota; named for railroad official Wirth Cook. countable, uncountable
  5. 5
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; A village in Johnson County, Nebraska; named for landowner Andrew Cook. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Madison Township, Fayette County, Ohio; named for landowner Matthew S. Cook. countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    A placename:; A locale in the United States:; A township in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    A placename:; A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; named for James Cook. countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    A placename:; A local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia; in full, the Shire of Cook. countable, uncountable
  5. 10
    A placename:; A ghost town in South Australia, Australia; named for Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia. countable, uncountable
  6. 11
    A placename:; A river in Westland district, West Coast, New Zealand. countable, uncountable
  7. 12
    An electoral division in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. countable, uncountable
Noun
  1. 1
    A person who prepares food.

    "I'm a terrible cook, so I eat a lot of frozen dinners."

  2. 2
    someone who cooks food wordnet
  3. 3
    The head cook of a manor house.
  4. 4
    The degree or quality of cookedness of food.
  5. 5
    The member of a hot-rivetting team who heats the rivets in a brazier, see rivet.
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  1. 6
    One who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth. slang

    "Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab."

  2. 7
    A session of manufacturing certain illegal drugs, especially meth. slang

    "Punko told Plante he wanted to use a full barrel for the next cook."

  3. 8
    A fish, the European striped wrasse, Labrus mixtus.
  4. 9
    An unintended solution to a chess problem, considered to spoil the problem.

    "The original endgame was one file to the right (Kf1, Kb5 etc.). But there is a cook after 1. c6 dxc6 2. d6 cxd6 3. h4 gxh3 e.p. 4. gxh3 Ka4! 5. h4 b5. My version eliminates the cook."

Verb
  1. 1
    To prepare food for eating by heating it, often combining with other ingredients. ambitransitive

    "I'm cooking bangers and mash."

  2. 2
    To make the noise of the cuckoo. intransitive, obsolete, rare

    "Constant cuckoos cook on every side."

  3. 3
    To throw. UK, dialectal, obsolete

    "Cook. To throw. Cook me that ball, throw me that ball. Glou."

  4. 4
    transform and make suitable for consumption by heating wordnet
  5. 5
    To smelt. transitive

    "Your suggestion makes sense. You cook iron with coal to get... iron. The coal is expended, where does it go? inside the iron to turn it into steel in real life. I approve"

Show 18 more definitions
  1. 6
    transform by heating wordnet
  2. 7
    To be cooked. intransitive

    "The dinner is cooking on the stove."

  3. 8
    prepare for eating by applying heat wordnet
  4. 9
    To be uncomfortably hot. figuratively, intransitive

    "Look at that poor dog shut up in that car on a day like today - it must be cooking in there."

  5. 10
    prepare a hot meal wordnet
  6. 11
    To kill, destroy, or otherwise render useless or inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation. slang, transitive

    "You would die from what we might call "extremely acute radiation poisoning" – that is, you would be cooked."

  7. 12
    tamper, with the purpose of deception wordnet
  8. 13
    To execute by electric chair. slang, transitive
  9. 14
    To hold on to a grenade briefly after igniting the fuse, so that it explodes almost immediately after being thrown. slang, transitive

    "I always cook my frags, in case they try to grab one and throw it back."

  10. 15
    To concoct or prepare. transitive

    "My brother was locked up for cooking meth in his basement."

  11. 16
    To tamper with or alter; to cook up. slang, transitive

    "They all of them receive the same advices from abroad, and very often in the same words; but their way of cooking it is so different, that there is no citizen, who has an eye to the public good, who can leave the coffee-house with peace of mind..."

  12. 17
    To play or improvise in an inspired and rhythmically exciting way. (From 1930s jive talk.) intransitive, slang

    "Watch this band: they cook!"

  13. 18
    To play music vigorously. intransitive, slang

    "On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking!"

  14. 19
    To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole). humorous, intransitive, slang

    "Hol' up, let that boy cook!"

  15. 20
    To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole).; To proceed with some advantageous course of action; (more generally) to be successful. humorous, intransitive, slang

    "We had to deal with some problems at first, but now we're cooking."

  16. 21
    To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole).; To develop insane or fringe ideas. Australia, derogatory, humorous, intransitive, slang

    "The furlough of workers during The Lockdowns left many with a conspiracy bent ample time to cook."

  17. 22
    To defeat or humiliate. slang, transitive

    "He didn't prepare for the debate at all, so his opponent cooked him hard."

  18. 23
    To cause to be cooked, i.e. to put in a hopeless situation. slang, transitive

    "This new labor law is really cooking working-class people."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English cook, from Old English cōc (“a cook”), from Latin cocus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian khoch (“cook”), Dutch kok (“cook”), German Koch (“cook”), Luxembourgish Kach (“cook”), Danish kok (“cook”), Icelandic kokkur (“cook”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kokk (“cook”), Swedish kock (“cook”). Also compare Proto-West Germanic *kokōn (“to cook”) (whence North Frisian kööge, kööki (“to cook, boil”), West Frisian koaitsje (“to cook”), Cimbrian khochan, khòchan (“to cook”), Dutch koken (“to cook”), German kochen (“to cook”), Limburgish kaoke, kauche (“to cook”), Luxembourgish kachen (“to cook”), Vilamovian kocha, koha (“to cook”), Yiddish קאָכן (kokhn, “to cook”)), from Late Latin cocō (“to cook”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English coken, from the noun cook. In the slang sense of "proceed with some plan", coined by American rapper from California Lil B in 2010 and popularized in viral tweets and TikToks in mid-2022.

Etymology 3

Imitative.

Etymology 4

Unknown; possibly related to chuck.

Etymology 5

From cook. Doublet of Koch and Kok.

See also for "cook"

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