barbecue
Syllables: bar·be·cue/ˈbɑːbɪˌkjuː//ˈbɑɹbɪˌkju/
barbecue noun: a fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
Noun
barbecue (countable and uncountable, plural barbecues)
- A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
- We cooked our food on the barbecue.
- A meal or event highlighted by food cooked in such an apparatus.
- We're having a barbecue on Saturday, and you're invited.
- The difference here is that the protagonists in this collection are, for the most part, at the end of their lives, and so the news of familial drama and divorce and the cocktail parties, barbecues and casual wooings of quotidian life in suburbia is given retrospectively, wistfully, presented in the...2009 June 7, T. Coraghessan Boyle, “The Road Home”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021
- Meat, especially pork or beef, which has been cooked in such an apparatus (i.e. smoked over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels) and then chopped up or shredded.
- She ordered a plate of barbecue with a side of slaw.
- A hog, ox, or other large animal roasted or broiled whole for a feast.
- A floor on which coffee beans are sun-dried.
- Drying the coffee beans took place in a barbecue, basically a large, flat platform, where the pulped coffee beans could be laid out and turned as they dried. Barbecues were often walled around and raised above ground level.2000, Andrew Gerald Gravette, Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean, page 227
- A framework of sticks.
- We found no Houses of Entertainment on the Road, yet at every Village we came we got Houseroom, and a Barbacue of split Bambooes to sleep on.1705, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions, Volume 2, London: James Knapton, “A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World,” Chapter 5, p. 90
Verb
barbecue (third-person singular simple present barbecues, present participle barbecuing or barbecueing, simple past and past participle barbecued)
- To cook food on a barbecue; to smoke food over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels.
- To grill.
- Synonyms:
- braai
- To kill or destroy using high heat or fire; to cook; to burn.
- Then he picked up a flamethrower and he barbecued Blitzen
And he took a big bite and said, "It tastes just like chicken"1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day
- Then he picked up a flamethrower and he barbecued Blitzen
barbecue meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
barbecue in Hindi
- बारबेक्यू, बार्बेक्यू, बरबेक्यू
barbecue in Tamil
- பார்பிக்யூ, பார்பெக்யூ, பார்பிக்யூ செய்ய
barbecue in Marathi
- बार्बेक्यू, बारबेक्यू, बारबॅक्यू
barbecue in Urdu
- باربیکیو, باربیکو
More languagesFewer languages
- barbecue in Bengali
- বারবিকিউ, রোস্ট ভোজ
- barbecue in Telugu
- బార్బెక్యూ, బార్బేక్యూ
- barbecue in Malayalam
- വാതിൽപ്പുറവിരുന്ന്, പുറത്തു തീകൂട്ടി ചുട്ടെടുക്കൽ, വാതിൽപ്പുറപാചകം, തീയിൽ ചുട്ടെടുക്കൽ
- barbecue in Kannada
- ಬಾರ್ಬೆಕ್ಯೂ, ಬಾರ್ಬೇಕ್ಯೂ
- barbecue in Punjabi
- ਬਾਰਬਿਕਯੂ, ਬਾਰਬੀਕਿਊ, ਬਾਰਬਕਿਊ
- barbecue in Gujarati
- બાર્બેક્યુ, બરબેકયુ, બારબેક્યુ
- barbecue in Odia
- ବାର୍ବେକ୍ଯ଼ୁ, ବାରବେକ୍ଯ଼ୁ, ବାର୍ବେକ୍ଯ଼୍ଯ଼ୁ
- barbecue in Nepali
- बारबेक्यू, बार्बेक्यू, बार्बेक्यु
- barbecue in Arabic
- شِوَاء šiwāʔ, بَارْبِيكْيُو barbikyū, مِشْوَاة mišwāh, مَشْوِيَّات mašwiyyāt
- barbecue in Indonesian
- barbeku, barbekyu
- barbecue in Persian
- باربیکیو
- barbecue in Thai
- บาร์บีคิว
- barbecue in Vietnamese
- thịt nướng hun khói
Examples of barbecue in a sentence
- Jacky wanted Korean barbecue, but his mom didn't want to eat out.
- His barbecue sauce could use a hint of cayenne to heat it up a bit.
- He dumped a new batch of burgers sizzlingly onto the barbecue.
Synonyms of barbecue
Forms of barbecue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | barbecues |
| alternative form | 'cue |
| alternative form | 'que |
| alternative form | que |
| alternative form (informal) | barbeque |
| alternative form (informal) | bar-be-que |
| alternative form (informal) | bar-b-que |
| alternative form (informal) | bar-B-Q |
| alternative form (informal) | bar-b-q |
| alternative Australia New Zealand UK abbreviation (informal) | barbie |
| alternative abbreviation (informal) | BBQ |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | barbecues |
| present participle | barbecuing |
| present participle | barbecueing |
| past participle | barbecued |
| past | barbecued |
Origin of barbecue
From mid-17th century. Borrowed from Spanish barbacoa, from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. Originally “meal of roasted meat or fish”. Doublet of balbacua and barbacoa.
Words formed from barbecue
Phrases with barbecue
Questions about barbecue
- What does barbecue mean?
- Barbecue means a fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
- What is barbecue in Hindi?
- Barbecue in Hindi is बारबेक्यू, बार्बेक्यू, बरबेक्यू. See Barbecue meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is barbecue?
- Barbecue can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce barbecue?
- Barbecue is pronounced /ˈbɑːbɪˌkjuː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of barbecue?
- The plural of barbecue is barbecues.
Words near barbecue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barbecue (page history and authors); barbecue (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); barbecue (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); barbecue (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barbecue (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-barbecue.wav, en-us-barbecue.ogg.
Cite this entry: “barbecue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barbecue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.