cook

Less common meanings

5. 5
   do greatverbslanghumorousintransitive

   To do something with great energy and success, as when a team plays well or musicians play with drive.

   By the third quarter the offense was cooking, scoring on every possession.

   When the band starts to cook in the second set, the whole crowd gets on its feet.

   UsageMostly in the progressive: now we're cooking, the offense was cooking.

   Similarrock, roll, sizzle

   Oppositestruggle, sputter, stall

   Note

   It praises momentum, whether a footballer adding a goal or a gamer finding a build that hits harder. The success meaning predates the 2020s craze. In a 1977 Gay Community News piece, the Boston bar owner Suki Eagan says her bar "started cookin'" once the right staff arrived. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The cited piece appeared in 1977. digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu
   • The success meaning predates the 2020s; the cited speaker says her bar "started cookin'" after she hired the staff. en.wiktionary.org
   • The speaker was a female bar owner. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   verbslangtransitive

   To defeat or humiliate someone, or leave them in a hopeless situation, as in 'we're cooked'.

   Once the storm washed out the only bridge back to town, we realized we were completely cooked.

   Their point guard is so quick that he'll cook anyone who tries to stay in front of him.

   Similarbeat, destroy, burn, torch

   Note

   Closely tied to being cooked: if being cooked means having no way out, to cook someone is to put them there. The subject is often not a person at all but a law, a leak or a failure, as in this new labor law is really cooking working-class people. The object is whoever is left without options.

7. 7
   fake figuresverbslangtransitive

   To tamper with or alter, especially records or figures.

   Auditors discovered the firm had cooked its books for years.

   Anyone can cook a spreadsheet if no one checks the source data.

   UsageMostly in the fixed phrase cook the books.

   Similarfalsify, doctor, fiddle, fudge, rig

   Note

   Tampering by dressing up, the way a dish is seasoned to taste. Joseph Addison, writing about the London news-sheets of his day, describes papers that receive the same reports from abroad, often in the same words, yet differ wildly in "their way of cooking it." There the news is altered in the telling. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Joseph Addison wrote about the London newspapers of his day in this passage. gutenberg.org
   • Addison describes identical foreign reports presented differently, using the quoted phrase. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   ruin by heatverbslangtransitive

   To kill, destroy, or render inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation.

   A power surge cooked the motherboard beyond repair.

   Solar flares can cook the electronics aboard unshielded satellites.

   Similarfry, destroy, burn

   Note

   Heat and radiation both qualify, and the victim can be a person or a machine. Randall Munroe's What If? (2014) sums up extremely acute radiation poisoning as "you would be cooked." Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary (2017) has a crew warned not to "cook any friendlies" with active sensors. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Randall Munroe wrote What If?. caseer.academy
   • What If? was first published in 2014. xkcd.com
   • Munroe uses the exact quotation to describe extremely acute radiation poisoning. caseer.academy
   • Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary contains this warning about active scanning in a strip dated July 6, 2017. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   feel too hotverbfigurativelyintransitive

   To be or feel uncomfortably hot.

   The fans were cooking in the bleachers by the third inning.

   Without shade, hikers can cook on that exposed ridge by midday.

   UsageOften in the progressive: we were cooking in the car.

   Similarbake, stew

   Oppositefreeze

10. 10
    drug makernounslangcountable

    A person who manufactures illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine.

    Detectives traced the chemical orders back to a single cook working out of a rented trailer.

    Every cook in the network answered to the same supplier of precursor chemicals.

    UsageOften with the drug in front: a meth cook, an LSD cook.

    Note

    Mackenzie Phillips's High on Arrival (2009) calls Owsley Stanley "a pioneer LSD cook," showing the word reaching well beyond meth. It names the person behind the verb of making drugs; the batch itself is the session noun. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Mackenzie Phillips wrote High on Arrival, first published in 2009. openlibrary.org
    • High on Arrival describes Owsley Stanley as "a pioneer LSD cook." en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nounslangcountable

    A session of manufacturing illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine.

    Neighbors noticed a sharp chemical smell every time the men started another cook in the trailer.

    Police raided the barn midway through a cook and seized the chemicals and glassware.

    Note

    Here the word counts events rather than people: one cook is one run of production, so it takes next, last or a single. In Neal Hall's Hell To Pay (2011) a man wants "a full barrel for the next cook." To tell it from the person who makes the drugs, ask whether it happens or works: a cook raided midway is a session, a cook who answers to a supplier is a person. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Neal Hall wrote Hell To Pay, first published in 2011. openlibrary.org
    • The book describes a man wanting "a full barrel for the next cook"; the man is Punko, speaking to Plante. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    nouncountable

    The degree or quality of doneness of food; how thoroughly it has been cooked.

    The judges praised the even cook on the brisket.

    A sous-vide bath guarantees a consistent cook from edge to center.

    UsageWith adjectives of evenness or degree: an even cook, a perfect cook on the steak.

    Similardoneness

    Note

    A kitchen word that turns a process into a measurable result. It names how done something is, not the act of cooking, so it pairs with adjectives of evenness and degree: an even cook, a consistent cook, a perfect cook from edge to center. It is countable in a way most nouns of process are not.

13. 13
    follow a thoughtverbslanghumorousintransitive

    To develop a plan or train of thought freely to its end, whether brilliant, funny, or far-fetched, as in 'let him cook'.

    Nobody interrupted; we just let him cook and waited to see where the theory landed.

    When Dana started explaining why the office plants kept dying, we decided to just let her cook.

    Note

    Internet slang with a known author: the American rapper Lil B coined it in 2010, and viral tweets and TikToks spread it in mid-2022. Its home is the phrase let him cook (or let that boy cook), a request to stop interrupting and see where the idea goes. The verdict is left open: the result may be brilliant, funny, or a hole being dug deeper. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Lil B is an American rapper. en.wikipedia.org
    • Lil B coined this slang sense in 2010. en.wiktionary.org
    • Viral tweets and TikToks popularized it in mid-2022. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    electric chairverbslangtransitive

    To execute by electric chair.

    Facing a murder charge in 1930s Chicago, Eddie knew that if the jury convicted him, the state would cook him in the electric chair.

    They cooked the gang's trigger man upstate back in 1938.

    Similarfry

    Note

    Gallows humor in kitchen terms: the electric chair treated as a stove, with fry as its companion in the same slang. Both words make light of an execution, so they carry a hard edge of callousness. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Cook and fry can both mean execution by electric chair. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    grenadeverbslangtransitive

    To keep hold of a grenade for a moment after its fuse is lit so that it detonates almost as soon as it leaves the hand.

    The sergeant showed us how to cook a grenade for two seconds so the enemy would have no time to throw it back.

    He cooked the grenade so the enemy couldn't pick it up and throw it back.

    Note

    Soldiers' slang for a timing trick: the fuse is already burning while the grenade is still in hand, so it bursts soon after it lands. The point is to deny the enemy time to grab it and throw it back. Frags can be the object (I always cook my frags), and cook off is an alternative form of the same verb. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Cooking a grenade involves retaining it briefly after fuse ignition to shorten the delay before detonation after throwing. en.wiktionary.org
    • The shortened delay reduces the enemy's opportunity to throw the grenade back. en.wikipedia.org
    • Cook off also denotes delaying the throw of an activated grenade. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    cuckoo callverbobsoleteintransitive

    To make the characteristic two-note call of the cuckoo.

    Constant cuckoos cook on every side.

    1599, Thomas Moffet, The Silkwormes

    Note

    An echo of the bird itself: this verb is imitative, a separate word from the kitchen cook that only happens to share its spelling. Thomas Moffet's The Silkwormes, and their Flies (1599) has "Constant cuckoos cook on every side." Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The cuckoo verb is imitative and has a separate etymology from culinary cook. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Moffet wrote The Silkwormes, and their Flies, published in 1599. amgueddfa.cymru
    • The attributed quotation is recorded with this wording. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    verb

    In video games, to smelt; to process ore or raw materials in a furnace, converting them into refined items.
18. 18
    noun

    An unintended solution to a chess problem, regarded as a flaw that spoils the composition.
19. 19
    noun

    A European fish, the cuckoo wrasse (Labrus mixtus), once also called the striped wrasse, found in coastal Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.
20. 20
    verbdialectalUK

    To throw; to hurl or toss an object.

    Cook. To throw. Cook me that ball, throw me that ball. Glou.

    1787, Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary: With a Collection of Local Proverbs