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cooking

SayKUUK-ing/ˈkʊk.ɪŋ/

10 meanings of cooking

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    The work of making food ready to eat by heating it.

    Like changing raw food into a warm meal using heat.

    Cooking takes time, but a warm meal is always worth it.

    She enjoys cooking on lazy weekend mornings.

    Similarcookery

    Note
  2. 2
    verb
    Present participle of cook. Use this form for something happening right now.

    She is cooking dinner for the whole family tonight.

    They are cooking sausages outside on the grill.

    Note
  3. 3
    noununcountable
    Food that someone has made ready to eat by heating it.

    The kids ate every bite of their grandpa's cooking.

    She put the rest of her cooking in boxes for the guests to take home.

    Similarfood

    Note
  4. 4
    noununcountable
    A way of preparing food that belongs to a country, region, or group.

    Thai cooking uses a lot of fresh herbs and chili.

    She grew up loving her family's southern cooking.

    Similarcuisine, cookery, food

    Note
  5. 5
    noununcountable
    How good a person is at making meals.

    His cooking has improved a lot since he moved out.

    Everyone praised her cooking at the party.

    Similarfood, cookery, cuisine

  6. 6
    adjective
    Made for use in preparing food, not for other uses.

    Add a little cooking oil so the rice doesn't stick.

    These cooking apples are too sour to eat raw.

  7. 7
    adjectivecolloquial
    Happening or being prepared right now, often in an exciting way.

    Something big is cooking at the office this week.

    I can tell a surprise is cooking for her birthday.

    Similarafoot

  8. 8
    adjective
    Cheap enough to use in food but not nice enough to drink.

    He only had cooking wine left, so the gravy got a splash.

    This cooking sherry is too harsh to drink by itself.

    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 9
    nounrarecountable
    A single time when food is made by heating it.

    Each cooking used up most of the firewood they had.

    This culinary process is but the first in a series of cookings, of which the intracorporeal cookings constitute the rest.
    1992, R. S. Khare, The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and BuddhistsHere, cookings means single acts of preparing food with heat.

    Similarbatch

    Note
  2. 10
    noun
    The cheapest beer a bar has on tap.

cooking is a form of cook

cook, verb: To make food ready to eat by heating it. Full entry

Forms
cookcooks he/she/itcooking -ing formcooked past tense, past participle
Spelling
cook → cooking: add -ing

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of cooking apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From the word "cook" plus "-ing". The noun and adjective come from the verb.