barbecue

American  

[bahr-bi-kyoo] / ˈbɑr bɪˌkju /

Or barbeque,

noun

• barbecues
  plural

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

1. 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.

2. 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

1. to cook over an open fire using an instrument such as a grill, spit, or smoker, or to host a social gathering where food is cooked in this manner.

   If the weather's nice, we'll barbecue in the backyard.

barbecue British  

/ ˈbɑːbɪˌkjuː /

noun

1. a meal cooked out of doors over an open fire

2. an outdoor party or picnic at which barbecued food is served

3. a grill or fireplace used in barbecuing

4. the food so cooked

---

verb

1. to cook (meat, fish, etc) on a grill, usually over charcoal and often with a highly seasoned sauce

2. to cook (meat, fish, etc) in a highly seasoned sauce

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• barbecuer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• barbecues
  plural

Participles

• barbecuing
  present
• barbecued
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• barbecue
  simple
• barbecues
  simple
• have barbecued
  perfect
• has barbecued
  perfect
• am barbecuing
  progressive
• are barbecuing
  progressive
• is barbecuing
  progressive
• have been barbecuing
  perfect progressive
• has been barbecuing
  perfect progressive

Past

• barbecued
  simple
• had barbecued
  perfect
• was barbecuing
  progressive
• were barbecuing
  progressive
• had been barbecuing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will barbecue
  simple
• will have barbecued
  perfect
• will be barbecuing
  progressive
• will have been barbecuing
  perfect progressive

---

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

barbecue barbecues barbecued barbecuing

So we plan to cater a barbecue buffet from Palmetto Pig, one of our favorite restaurants, instead.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

Berkeley police said the long object Shrine pulled from his pocket while following Winograd into her apartment building was believed to be a barbecue lighter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Rather than declining invitations that you can’t afford, proffer your own invites for dinner or to a barbecue or the county fair.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

They’re coaching your child’s soccer team, sitting next to you at a community fundraiser or chatting with you at a neighborhood barbecue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

I looked back at the surfer kids talking around their barbecue pit.

From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña

Around that time, he took on the role of grill master at the offensive line barbecues.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026

Sample some new snacks: Summer barbecues are rife with potato-chip mediocrity.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

Hosted at King Charles III’s private estate in Aberdeenshire, the vacation is normally a time for the wider royal clan to get together, decompress, have barbecues and go hunting, away from the public eye.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

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

They have barbecues for neighbors and coach their children in sports.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

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

The red fingers and lips of a man cheering, spewing specks of barbecued chicken.

From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli

"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

The rest of the section, which included anodyne listicles about summer activities, barbecuing, and photography, soon attracted additional scrutiny.

From Slate ● May 21, 2025

Kipini, with its welcoming palm trees and smells of spice and barbecuing seafood, evokes what every Kenyan pictures of laid-back coastal life.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2024

He also liked barbecuing in his favorite stain-splattered red and white checked apron.

From "Scream for Ice Cream: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #2" by Carolyn Keene

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• broil
• grill
• sear

---