kitchen

[kich-uh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR kitchen ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a room or place equipped for cooking.

culinary department; cuisine: This restaurant has a fine Italian kitchen.

the staff or equipment of a kitchen.

adjective

of, relating to, or designed for use in a kitchen: kitchen window; kitchen curtains.

employed in or assigned to a kitchen: kitchen help.

of or resembling a pidginized language, especially one used for communication between employers and servants or other employees who do not speak the same language.

Origin of kitchen

before 1000; Middle English kichene, Old English cycene ≪ Latin coquīna, equivalent to coqu(ere) to cook + -īna -ine¹; cf. cuisine

Related formskitch·en·less, adjectivekitch·en·y, adjectiveout·kitch·en, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for kitchen

gallery, cuisine, mess, canteen, kitchenette, galley, cookhouse, scullery, cookery

Examples from the Web for kitchen

Contemporary Examples of kitchen

Hitchcock is very proud of his kitchen; he's comfortable here.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days
David Freeman
December 13, 2014
At the end of one of our sessions I join them in their kitchen for yet another drink.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days
David Freeman
December 13, 2014
The days it takes place are marked on the wall calendar in the kitchen and counted down to with feverish excitement.
Confessions of a Turkey Killer
Tom Sykes
November 26, 2014
He knew all about cilantro and the best facial cleanses, but in bed and on the kitchen table he was all about the ladies.
How Straight World Stole ‘Gay’: The Last Gasp of the ‘Lumbersexual’
Tim Teeman
November 12, 2014
But she is still in the kitchen, responsible for the running of the household.
‘Gods of Suburbia’: Dina Goldstein’s Arresting Photo Series on Religion vs. Consumerism
Dina Goldstein
November 8, 2014

Historical Examples of kitchen

Robert hurried home, and rushed into the kitchen where his mother was at work.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
Your eggs are carried from the kitchen to the dining-room table on a plate.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Harriett had to see him every time she came into the kitchen.
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
May Sinclair
If they entered a house, he sat in the parlor; if they peeped into the kitchen, he was there.
Little Daffydowndilly
Nathaniel Hawthorne
She recovered herself instantly, and ran back to the kitchen.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for kitchen

kitchen

noun

a room or part of a building equipped for preparing and cooking food
(as modifier)a kitchen table

Word Origin for kitchen

Old English cycene, ultimately from Late Latin coquīna, from Latin coquere to cook; see kiln

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for kitchen

c.1200, from Old English cycene, from West Germanic *kokina (cf. Middle Dutch cökene, Old High German chuhhina, German Küche, Danish kjøkken), probably borrowed from Vulgar Latin *cocina (cf. French cuisine, Spanish cocina), variant of Latin coquina "kitchen," from fem. of coquinus "of cooks," from coquus "cook," from coquere "to cook" (see cook (n.)).

The Old English word might be directly from Vulgar Latin. Kitchen cabinet "informal but powerful set of advisors" is American English slang, 1832, originally in reference to administration of President Andrew Jackson. Kitchen midden (1863) in archaeology translates Danish kjøkken mødding. Surname Kitchener ("one in charge of a monastic kitchen") is from early 14c. Old English also had cycenðenung "service in the kitchen."

Idioms and Phrases with kitchen

kitchen

see everything but the kitchen sink; if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.