cook up

verb

1. informal,  to concoct or invent (a story, alibi, etc)

2. to prepare (a meal), esp quickly

3. slang,  to prepare (a drug) for use by heating, as by dissolving heroin in a spoon

noun

1. (in the Caribbean) a dish consisting of mixed meats, rice, shrimps, and sometimes vegetables

Idioms and Phrases

Fabricate, concoct, as in She's always cooking up some excuse. [Colloquial; mid-1700s]

Example Sentences

Chickens are preferred for those cooking up a New Year's feast on a budget.

From BBC

She uploads daily videos to her YouTube channel, cooking up recipes like shrimp gumbo casserole and peaches and cream muffins for her nearly 600,000 subscribers to feast on.

From Salon

Were Ukraine and Europe about to get cut out of a deal cooked up behind closed doors by the world's two foremost nuclear powers?

From BBC

The school summer holidays means many parents face the task of cooking up lunches and snacks for children eating most of their meals at home for six weeks.

From BBC

Protose was a meat substitute of wheat gluten and peanuts, cooked up by the food reformer Dr. John Kellogg, the fellow whose name you know better from a line of sometimes quite sugary cereals.

From Los Angeles Times