cookout
Americannoun
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cookouts
plural
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a party or entertainment featuring the cooking and eating of a meal out of doors.
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the process of cooking and eating a meal outdoors.
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a meal cooked and eaten in the open.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cookout
1945–50, noun use of verb phrase cook out
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A potato PSA: Before your next cookout, you need to read Danny Palumbo’s guide to making a better potato salad.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
A Fourth of July cookout will cost 9.4% more than last year, with the American Farm Bureau Federation estimating it costs $73.82 to feed 10.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
A bunch of green onions left half-charred on the grill outside one of the smaller cabins suggested the arrival of the Mexican commandos coincided with a carne asada cookout.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
He met with co-workers during a cookout at the Speed Kingz office in Laurel, Md., ahead of a recent night shift.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Someone wasn’t really swimming and having a cookout in the middle of a wildfire, were they?
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
It’s sweet, tangy, and pickley—the perfect complement to backyard cookouts.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Here are five ways to shop smart and tweak your menu to help stretch your budget for the holiday weekend — and all your summer cookouts.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
These groups organised local community events, such as charity drives, cookouts and political discussions, before switching to full-time campaigning.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
I think people will be very bored with screen time in 20 years, so we will have moved back to fishing, reading books, gardening, playing real guitars and pianos, taking walks, and enjoying family cookouts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
It was no use selling 8800 since kinfolk from Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina were now moving in, and on most days, they gathered on the sidewalks and the porches for gossip and cookouts.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
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.
