kebab

American  

[kuh-bob] / kəˈbɒb /

Also kebob, or kabob

noun

kebabs plural

1. Usually kebabs small pieces of meat or seafood seasoned or marinated and broiled, often with tomatoes, green peppers, onions, or other vegetables, usually on a skewer.

2. (in Indian English use) roast meat.

3. Digital Technology. kebab menu.

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kebab British  

/ kəˈbæb /

noun

1. Also called: shish kebab.   kabob.   cabob.  a dish consisting of small pieces of meat, tomatoes, onions, etc, threaded onto skewers and grilled, generally over charcoal

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• kebabs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of kebab

First recorded in 1665–75; from Arabic, from Hindi kabāb, from Turkish kebap “roast meat”

Explanation

A kebab is a dish of vegetables, meat, or seafood cut into pieces, skewered, and cooked on a grill. On the first day of summer, your family might like to cook kebabs and have all the neighbors over. In the U.S., a kebab is generally understood to be a shish kebab — marinated cubes of meat alternating with chunks of onion, green pepper, or other veggies on a long skewer and cooked over a fire. English speakers outside of North America are more familiar with the doner kebab, a sandwich similar to a gyro or shawarma, with sliced meat served in a flatbread. The Arabic root word, kabāb, means "roasted meat."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

kebab kebabs

One lamb doner kebab that claimed to contain 87% lamb was found to be 40% animal fat.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Kismet Kebabs remains one of the UK's largest kebab meat suppliers.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

The family-run Al-Mazaq not only serves top-tier dolmas and kebab, but also hand-stretched Iraqi bread.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Swifties also flock to a kebab shop where she filmed part of the End Game music video in 2016.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026

For lunch, Rasheed took her to eat in a small kebab house near a mosque he called the Haji Yaghoub.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

STK’s thick, well-marbled filet mignon is perfect for kebabs with little more than salt and freshly cracked pepper.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

Kismet Kebabs advertised and labelled its lamb doner kebabs as being made with up to 87% lamb – depending on the kebab.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

In the classroom, trainees crowded around instructor Luo Duocheng as he demonstrated slicing a slab of beef, marinating it, and skewering the meat to form identical kebabs.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

A number of samples were taken across the city and county, with results indicating kebabs from Kismet did not match the declared meat content on product labels.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

Making kebabs is my one and only superpower.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda