Word: cook Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *pékʷeti Proto-Italic *kʷekʷō Latin *quoquō Latin coquō Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Italic *-os Old Latin -os Latin -us Latin coquus Vulgar Latin *cocusbor. Old English cōc Middle English cook Middle English coken English cook From Middle English coken, from the noun cook. In the slang sense of "proceed with some plan", coined by American rapper from California Lil B in 2010 and popularized in viral tweets and TikToks in mid-2022. Pronunciation: /kʊk/, /kuːk/, /kʉk/ 1. To prepare food for eating, typically by heating it, combining it with other ingredients, seasoning it, preparing it for serving, etc. Labels: ambitransitive Example: I'm cooking bangers and mash. Example: He's in the kitchen, cooking. 2. To apply heat to food in the course of preparing it, particularly in a way that transforms it rather than simply making it warmer. Labels: specifically, transitive Example: You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf. 3. To undergo cooking. Labels: intransitive Example: The dinner is cooking on the stove. 4. To smelt. Labels: transitive Example: Your suggestion makes sense. You cook iron with coal to get... iron. The coal is expended, where does it go? inside the iron to turn it into steel in real life. I approve 5. To be uncomfortably hot. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: Look at that poor dog shut up in that car on a day like today - it must be cooking in there. 6. To kill, destroy, or otherwise render useless or inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation. Labels: slang, transitive Example: You would die from what we might call "extremely acute radiation poisoning" – that is, you would be cooked. Example: "What's coming?" "Dunno yet. Cindy! Active scanning! Pulse hard, but don't cook any friendlies." "We have sensors that can cook people?" "Another reason why warship combat is not an indoor sport." 7. To execute by electric chair. Labels: slang, transitive 8. To hold on to a grenade briefly after igniting the fuse, so that it explodes almost immediately after being thrown. Labels: slang, transitive Example: I always cook my frags, in case they try to grab one and throw it back. 9. To concoct or prepare. Example: My brother was locked up for cooking meth in his basement. Example: Jesse, we need to cook. 10. To tamper with or alter; to cook up. Labels: slang, transitive Example: They all of them receive the same advices from abroad, and very often in the same words; but their way of cooking it is so different, that there is no citizen, who has an eye to the public good, who can leave the coffee-house with peace of mind... Example: So far as Pridger was concerned the game was up. He had cooked the buying, he had cooked the selling, he had systematically pillaged the stock. 11. To play or improvise in an inspired and rhythmically exciting way. (From 1930s jive talk.) Labels: intransitive, slang Example: Watch this band: they cook! Example: Crank up the Coltrane and start cooking! 12. To play music vigorously. Labels: intransitive, slang Example: On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking! Example: The tempos were swift. The orchestra cooked, reading [conductor] Kahane's mind and swinging with him as one. 13. To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole). Labels: humorous, intransitive, slang Example: Hol' up, let that boy cook! Example: OK, who let him cook? 14. To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole). Labels: humorous, intransitive, slang Example: We had to deal with some problems at first, but now we're cooking. Example: My bar was built by Frazier, Gary Manson, Robert Feck, Jeff Picoli — that's who built my bar. When I hired those people, that's when my bar started cookin'. 'Cause Frazier gets along with anybody — he has a magnetic personality, and he can make the worst piece of shit feel like king for a day. 15. To proceed with some plan or course of action, or develop some train of thought towards its conclusion (whether this is advantageous, or comical, or digging into a hole). Labels: Australia, derogatory, humorous, intransitive, slang Example: The furlough of workers during The Lockdowns left many with a conspiracy bent ample time to cook. 16. To defeat or humiliate. Labels: slang, transitive Example: He didn't prepare for the debate at all, so his opponent cooked him hard. Example: You didn't have to cook him like that! 17. To cause to be cooked, i.e. to put in a hopeless situation. Labels: slang, transitive Example: This new labor law is really cooking working-class people. Example: This assignment is cooking me big time.