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• cook
  cook

  verb (used with object)

  to prepare (food) by the use of heat, as by boiling, baking, or roasting.
• Cook
  Cook

  noun

  Frederick Albert, 1865–1940, U.S. physician and polar explorer.

cook

¹ American  

[kook] / kʊk /

verb (used with object)

1. to prepare (food) by the use of heat, as by boiling, baking, or roasting.

2. to subject (anything) to the application of heat.

3. Slang. to ruin; spoil.

4. to process (computer programming code or other digital data) for use in an executable file format.

5. Slang. to falsify, as accounts.

   to cook the expense figures.

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verb (used without object)

1. to prepare food by the use of heat.

2. (of food) to undergo cooking.

3. Slang.

   1. to be full of activity and excitement.

      Las Vegas cooks around the clock.

   2. to perform, work, or do in just the right way and with energy and enthusiasm.

      That new drummer is really cooking tonight. Now you're cooking!

   3. to be in preparation; develop.

      Plans for the new factory have been cooking for several years.

   4. to take place; occur; happen.

      What's cooking at the club?

noun

• cooks
  plural

1. a person who cooks.

   The restaurant hired a new cook.

verb phrase

1. cook up

   1. to concoct or contrive, often dishonestly.

      She hastily cooked up an excuse.

   2. to falsify.

      Someone had obviously cooked up the alibi.

2. cook off (of a shell or cartridge) to explode or fire without being triggered as a result of overheating in the chamber of the weapon.

idioms

1. cook one's goose. goose.

2. cook the books, to manipulate the financial records of a company, organization, etc., so as to conceal profits, avoid taxes, or present a false financial report to stockholders.

cook ² American  

[kook, kook] / kuk, kʊk /

verb (used without object)

Scot.

1. to hide, especially outdoors, as by crouching down behind a hedge.

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Cook ³ American  

[kook] / kʊk /

noun

1. Frederick Albert, 1865–1940, U.S. physician and polar explorer.

2. George Cram 1873–1924, U.S. novelist, dramatist, and poet.

3. Captain James, 1728–79, English navigator and explorer in the South Pacific and Southern Oceans, particularly in the areas of Australia and New Zealand.

4. Sir Joseph, 1860–1947, Australian statesman, born in England: prime minister of Australia 1913–14.

5. Also called Aoraki, Aorangi. Mount Cook, a mountain in New Zealand, on South Island. 12,349 feet (3,764 meters).

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cook ¹ British  

/ kʊk /

verb

1. to prepare (food) by the action of heat, as by boiling, baking, etc, or (of food) to become ready for eating through such a process

2. to subject or be subjected to the action of intense heat

   the town cooked in the sun

3. slang (tr) to alter or falsify (something, esp figures, accounts, etc)

   to cook the books

4. slang (tr) to spoil or ruin (something)

5. slang (intr) to happen (esp in the phrase what's cooking? )

6. slang (tr) to prepare (any of several drugs) by heating

7. slang (intr) music to play vigorously

   the band was cooking

8. informal

   1. to spoil a person's plans

   2. to bring about someone's ruin, downfall, etc

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noun

1. a person who prepares food for eating, esp as an occupation

Cook ² British  

/ kʊk /

noun

1. Captain James . 1728–79, British navigator and explorer: claimed the E coast of Australia for Britain, circumnavigated New Zealand, and discovered several Pacific and Atlantic islands (1768–79)

2. Sir Joseph. 1860–1947, Australian statesman, born in England: prime minister of Australia (1913–14)

3. Peter ( Edward ). 1937–95, British comedy actor and writer, noted esp for his partnership (1960–73) with Dudley Moore

4. Robin, full name Robert Finlayson Cook . 1946–2005, British Labour politician; foreign secretary (1997–2001), Leader of the House (2001-2003)

5. Thomas. 1808–92, British travel agent; innovator of conducted excursions and founder of the travel agents Thomas Cook and Son

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Cook ³ British  

/ kʊk /

noun

1. Official name: Aoraki-Mount Cook. a mountain in New Zealand, in the South Island, in the Southern Alps: the highest peak in New Zealand. Height: reduced in 1991 by a rockfall from 3764 m (12 349 ft) to 3754 m (12 316 ft)

2. a mountain in SE Alaska, in the St Elias Mountains. Height: 4194 m (13 760 ft)

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cook More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing cook

• chief cook and bottlewasher
• short order (cook)
• too many cooks spoil the broth
• what's cooking

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cooking
  noun
• cookable
  adjective
• cookless
  adjective
• uncookable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cooks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cook¹

First recorded before 1000; (noun) Middle English co(o)ke, Old English cōc (compare Old Norse kokkr, German Koch, Dutch kok ), from Latin cocus, coquus, derivative of coquere “to cook”; akin to Sanskrit pácati “(he) cooks, bakes, roasts,” Slavic ( Polish ) piec “to bake, roast,” Greek péssein, péptein “to boil, cook”; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of cook²

First recorded in 1780–90; of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cook Cook cooks

Sources told NBC News that Combs paid inmates to clean and cook special meals for him, including curry chicken, pizza and empanadas, and that the hip-hop and R&B music producer also receives Chinese-style massages.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

You may endure a period of time where you cannot put your own clothes, bathe, or even cook or feed yourself.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Assignments might include building nuclear autonomous buses or robots that cook.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Here is the part that feels a little counterintuitive: after going to the trouble of deglazing the pot, I often cook everything back down again.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026

“Our cook makes a tasty fish stew,” Miss Mortimer said kindly.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

Ware, a novelist, wrote the book because she and her husband, journalist Tony Cook, “did everything wrong” in downsizing their homes six times in 10 years.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

"We also welcome the European Parliament's leadership in championing a harmonised, Europe-wide framework to keep kids safe," Cook said during a visit to an Apple store in Strasbourg.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Fifteen years later, Cook passed the torch last month to John Ternus, who inherited a company now valued at nearly $5 trillion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Like Cook, he traffics in clear-eyed, dispassionate analysis, not partisan wish-casting or political spin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

No doubt Cook would have baked a cake for the occasion, had she known how well things would turn out.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

A menu, she argued, should not require cooks to spend 18 hours peeling pine nuts simply because the chef wants to demonstrate technical skill.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026

Japanese cooks are working with a brand-new selection of seafood, since El Nino has altered ocean migratory routes.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

She now cooks at the coaching centre where one of her daughters prepares for police recruitment.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

On that day, Ayala said, his nieces had finished working as cooks at a Thai restaurant around 2 a.m. and decided to go out with two cousins.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Three cooks in white clothing worked at the big stoves, putting beans, rice, and enchiladas onto plates that dark-haired waitresses in bright-red dresses picked up at a counter.

From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty