cookie

American  

[kook-ee] / ˈkʊk i /

Sometimes cooky

noun

• cookies
  plural

1. a small, usually round and flat cake, the size of an individual portion, made from stiff, sweetened dough, and baked.

2. Informal. dear; sweetheart (a term of address, usually connoting affection).

3. Slang.

   1. a person, usually of a specified character or type.

      a smart cookie;

      a tough cookie.

   2. an alluring young woman.

4. Also called browser cookie, http cookie;. Digital Technology. a file or segment of data that identifies a unique user over time and across interactions with a website, sent by the web server through a browser, stored on a user’s hard drive, and sent back to the server each time the browser requests a web page.

   Your browser will run more efficiently after you clear the cache and cookies.

5. South Atlantic States (chiefly North Carolina). a doughnut.

6. Scot. a bun.

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verb (used with object)

cookied, cookieing, cookying

1. Digital Technology. to assign a cookie or cookies to (a website user).

   I'm not really comfortable being cookied all the time.

idioms

1. toss / spill one's cookies, to vomit.

cookie British  

/ ˈkʊkɪ /

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): biscuit. a small flat dry sweet or plain cake of many varieties, baked from a dough

2. a Scot word for bun

3. informal a person

   smart cookie

4. computing a piece of data downloaded to a computer by a website, containing details of the preferences of that computer's user which identify the user when revisiting that website

5. informal matters are inevitably or unalterably so

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cookie Scientific  

/ kk′ē /

1. A collection of information, usually including a username and the current date and time, stored on the local computer of a person using the World Wide Web, used chiefly by websites to identify users who have previously registered or visited the site. Cookies are used to relate one computer transaction to a later one.

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cookie More Idioms  

1. see hand in the till (cookie jar); that's how the ball bounces (cookie crumbles); toss one's cookies.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cookies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cookie

First recorded in 1750–55; from Dutch koekie, dialectal variant of koekje, equivalent to koek “biscuit, cake” + -je diminutive suffix; see origin at cake

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Explanation

A cookie is a round, sweet baked good that's often eaten with a glass of milk. You might bake three dozen cookies to sell at your swim team's bake sale. In Britain, it's a biscuit, and in the US it's a cookie. In both cases, it's a small cake that's baked on a cookie sheet. Your favorite cookies might be chocolate chip — or maybe you're more of an oatmeal raisin cookie type. When you see cookie in the context of computers, it means a bit of data that's sent from a website to your browser. This type of cookie helps your computer remember passwords and web pages it's visited.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cookie cookies cookied

The book includes a gallery of images of major chefs and food writers, period postcards and package labels, historic restaurant menus, and paraphernalia such as wooden cookie molds and handsome serving vessels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Fiona Ma played sports, was a Girl Scout — “a top cookie seller,” she boasts on her campaign website — and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Others are placed onto table frames fixed to the ocean floor, and yet others are mounted onto plugs, screwed into a three-hole "cookie" and planted onto the reef.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

About the size of a cookie, each array contains eight quartz corner cube prisms mounted inside a dome shaped aluminum frame.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026

"I expect you might be willing to do me a favor and eat a cookie or two," she said to Sam.

From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry

By carefully separating two Oreo cookies into a crème side and a cookie side and putting the crème sides together, I created “Extra Icing”—what years later came to be known as the Double Stuf Oreo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Slate’s three decades have seen countless beginner’s guides, staff recommendations, tabulations of game-night commercials, and “Completist” roundups of everything from Pepperidge Farm cookies to Super Bowls.

From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026

Baker Diane Bustos said her company now sells seven types of ube cookies.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

He’s also brought cookies and bottles of water to houses to liven things up.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

“How about you do it together, and set the record for the most cookies eaten by sisters?”

From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan

Vonetta must have heard Uncle’s name and came out into the living room, her hands and lips all cookied up.

From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia

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Related Words

• biscuit
• wafer

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