barbecue
Americannoun
-
barbecues
plural
-
pieces of meat, fowl, fish, or the like, roasted or smoked over fire, especially when basted in a barbecue sauce.
The restaurant serves amazing barbecue.
-
a framework, such as a grill or a spit, for cooking meat or vegetables over an open fire.
Make sure you clean off the barbecue so it's ready to use when we go camping.
-
a meal, usually in the open air and often as a social gathering, at which meats are roasted on a grill or over an open hearth or pit.
-
any social gathering centered around food, especially meat, that is cooked over fire using a grill, spit, smoker, or the like.
Our weekend barbecue was lively until it started to rain.
-
a dressed steer, lamb, or other animal, roasted whole.
verb (used with object)
-
barbecues,
present (3rd person singular)
-
barbecued,
past participle, past
-
barbecuing
present participle
-
to broil, smoke, or roast (meat, fowl, fish, or the like) whole or in large pieces over an open fire, using a spit, grill, smoker, or the like, often seasoning with vinegar, spices, salt, and pepper.
They barbecued a chicken and some steaks for dinner.
-
to cook (sliced or diced meat, fowl, fish, or the like) in a highly seasoned sauce.
verb (used without object)
-
barbecues,
present (3rd person singular)
-
barbecued,
past participle, past
-
barbecuing
present participle
noun
-
a meal cooked out of doors over an open fire
-
an outdoor party or picnic at which barbecued food is served
-
a grill or fireplace used in barbecuing
-
the food so cooked
verb
-
to cook (meat, fish, etc) on a grill, usually over charcoal and often with a highly seasoned sauce
-
to cook (meat, fish, etc) in a highly seasoned sauce
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
barbecuesimple
-
barbecuessimple
-
have barbecuedperfect
-
has barbecuedperfect
-
am barbecuingprogressive
-
are barbecuingprogressive
-
is barbecuingprogressive
-
have been barbecuingperfect progressive
-
has been barbecuingperfect progressive
Past
-
barbecuedsimple
-
had barbecuedperfect
-
was barbecuingprogressive
-
were barbecuingprogressive
-
had been barbecuingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of barbecue
First recorded in 1655–65; from Spanish barbacoa, from Arawak (perhaps Taíno ) barbacoa “a raised frame of sticks”
Explanation
A barbecue is an outdoor party where food is cooked on a grill or over a fire. Your family might host a barbecue every summer to celebrate the end of the school year. If you're invited to a barbecue, you'll probably be served meat that's been slowly cooked or smoked over a fire, served with sweet and spicy barbecue sauce. Sometimes this kind of food itself is called barbecue, and the oven or grill that's used is also a barbecue. This word dates from the 17th century, from the Spanish barbacoa, which probably stems from the Arawakan barbakoa, "framework of sticks" used to cure meat.
Vocabulary lists containing barbecue
Memorial Day Words
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 2
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Ben Zimmer's 30 Great American Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Describing Britain as "a tinderbox" with 37 blazes nationwide on Friday, the prime minister warned against lighting fires outdoors, as the government introduced a ban on selling disposable barbecue equipment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
There are multiple excursions for barbecue, each resulting in stained clothes for Rebecca.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Saturday night ended with some friends at a barbecue place across from the convention center, a spot made famous by the movie “Top Gun.”
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
Still, I did what a social scientist does—I went to the barbecue joints to ask my questions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
"Seriously, Otis is the name of old men who smell like cinnamon and barbecue sauce."
From "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds
On Friday evening the UK's mobile phone alert system was used to warn people not to light anything which could spark a wildfire, including barbecues and garden incinerators.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The second-year running back has made it a priority to get close with linemen by talking more and going to their barbecues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The government has also announced a temporary ban on the sale of disposable barbecues, saying they had been responsible for serious fires this summer.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Burnham said 37 fires were currently burning across England and Wales, although not all had been caused by disposable barbecues.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
There had been many barbecues with the driveway lined with cars and a troop of chauffeurs under the palm trees exchanging news and gossip.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
Frank barbecued ribs in the yard, his mom served birria with rice and beans, and some 50 friends and classmates showed up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
I’ll always prefer Mom’s barbecued chicken, fried chicken and French fries, but I have branched out, trying an array of new, relatively tamer foods, ranging from albacore tuna to zucchini.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026
Orion wares include 58 tortillas, 43 cups of coffee, barbecued beef brisket and five types of hot sauce.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
So we barbecued some hot dogs and just hung out in one of the guys’ backyard with a couple of guitars on a picnic bench ... and we wrote “Lay Me Down.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2025
That night Zeitoun and Nasser prayed together on the roof of the house on Dart and barbecued hamburger meat on the grill.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
"I can combine barbecuing with my previous work experience, which will be an advantage for me," Xu said after attending a class on editing videos for Douyin -- China's version of TikTok.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
“And my other favorite time is sunset in the upper bedroom or downstairs barbecuing something outdoors. The views really are spectacular.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
But that didn’t stop him from sharing an “EXCLUSIVE” video last week that showed African immigrants in Dayton … barbecuing chicken.
From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2024
As you explain in the book, barbecuing and grilling are not the same thing.
From Salon ● May 30, 2024
We'd spend the days swimming, barbecuing, and brainstorming sketch ideas we would later put on video for posterity.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
