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
Diners sit on sidewalks and feast on dishes as simple as gelatin in plastic cups and as complex as goat barbacoa baked for hours in a backyard pit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2023
In Interbay, Taqueria Mi Barrio hawks beef barbacoa and al pastor tacos at 1700 W. Armory Way.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
“Barbecue” comes from barbacoa, a word in the Arawakan language of the Caribbean for a wooden frame used for sleeping on and for drying food, Tschann writes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023
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, specifically South Texas beef-head barbacoa, is a major influence on contemporary Texas barbecue.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 12, 2019
Barbacoa serves the same restorative morning-after function as menudo or birria.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2017
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
On reaching Barbacoa the division of the spoil began.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
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
There were a few huts at Barbacoas, for the place was of some small importance.
From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by John Masefield
An ambush had been laid at Barbacoas, but the Spaniards had left the place, after sweeping it as bare as Torna Munni.
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
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
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.
