a style of cooking meat by applying low heat for a long time, especially over an open fire or in a below-ground pit: the meat is often served shredded or chopped, with tortillas, in burritos, etc.
meat that has been cooked slowly on low heat, especially over an open fire or in a below-ground pit.
an Indigenous people of Ecuador and Colombia.
the language of the Barbacoa.
First recorded in 1945–50; from Spanish; see barbecue ( def. )
First recorded in 1885–90
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Many dishes now elevated to restaurant darling status — barbacoa, ratatouille, pasta e fagioli — were born from exactly those constraints.
From Salon ● May 12, 2026
Don’t miss some returning favorites, such as the barbacoa tamal de res, in which the beef is pleasantly tender, or the braised pork belly adobo, one of the heartier dishes at the festival.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
“Barbecue” comes from barbacoa, a word in the Arawakan language of the Caribbean for a wooden frame used for sleeping and for drying food, Tschann writes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2023
Cut into four thick slices, the pizzacoa features layers of crispy tortillas, melted cheese, and what feels like a pound of tender, shredded barbacoa beef.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2022
By nightfall the barbacoa would be finished, and we would eat some, then salt the rest and put it away in an ajoupa, together with the hides.
From Caribbee by Thomas Hoover
Barbacoa is also a specialty at Marcelo’s Tacos.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 25, 2020
Barbacoa, specifically South Texas beef-head barbacoa, is a major influence on contemporary Texas barbecue.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 12, 2019
Most valuable dish: Barbacoa burrito with rice, fajita veggies, pinto beans, fresh tomato salsa, cheese, guacamole and sour cream.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2016
The Barbacoa and Pastor have been popular, and for the vegetarian there’s the Verdura, featuring daily fresh vegetables.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 8, 2015
They continued their march the fifth day, and about noon came unto a place called Barbacoa.
From The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century by Clarence Henry Haring
The Peruvians obtained many emeralds from the barren district of Atacama, and in the times of the Conquest there were quarries on the River of Emeralds near Barbacoas.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 27, June, 1873 by Various
On the fifth day they reached Barbacoas; but still no place presented to their view either man, animal, or any kind of provisions whatever.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 12 by John Rudd
About noon they staggered in to Barbacoas, now a station on the Isthmian Railway.
From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by John Masefield
After resting some days in the old capital of Quito, our travellers proceeded to the small port of Barbacoas, on the west coast of Equador; and thence took passage for Panama.
From Bruin The Grand Bear Hunt by Johann Baptist Zwecker
Why may there not be an alluvial auriferous soil to the east of the Cordilleras, as there is to the west, in the Sonoro, at Choco, and at Barbacoas?
From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt
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.
