cooking
/ˈkʊkɪŋ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkɵkɪŋ/
cooking noun: the process of preparing food by using heat. Also the present participle and gerund of cook.
Noun
cooking (countable and uncountable, plural cookings)
- The process of preparing food by using heat.
- The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
- The cooking took a long time. Fionn built a spit from the ash that the salmon had knocked down.1995, Padraic O'Farrell, chapter 6, in Ancient Irish Legends
- An instance of preparing food by using heat.
- In the tiny kitchen a dozen men and a boy tried to hush their breathing, and sweltered. For it was very hot, and the pent-up odor of past cookings was stifling to men used to the open1904, Winston Churchill, The Crossing, page 1
- 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 Buddhists, page 194
- One's ability to prepare food; cookery.
- My cooking isn't very good. I don't have any idea how to prepare a good meal.
- I missed my mum's cooking while I was at university.
- The style or genre of food preparation.
- What you've produced is a perfect example of authentic Chinese cooking.
- One of the most common styles of Japanese cooking is called nimono.2001, Reiko Weston, Cooking the Japanese Way, page 9
- Synonyms:
- culinary art
- The cheapest available beer for sale in a public house.
- ‘Pint of bitter, please,” said Reggie. ‘Pint of cooking,” said the landlord.2009, David Nobbs, Reginald Perrin Omnibus: (Reginald Perrin), page 189
Adjective
cooking (not comparable)
- Designed or suitable for culinary purposes.
- I filled the cooking pot with water, and poured some cooking sherry into the skillet.
- This tree bears cooking apples.
- In progress, happening.
- The project took a few days to gain momentum, but by the end of the week, things were really cooking.
- Cheap; better suited for use in recipes than drinking.
- Bone a shoulder of mutton and lay in the following pickle for 24 hours, viz.:…half pint of cooking claret…and long peppers.1885, Bacchus(pseud.), New guide for the hotel, bar, restaurant [&c.]. Pt. 1, by Bacchus & Cordon Bleu, page 255
- JOHN JASPER: Mama says for you to come on upstairs and bring her a pint of cooking sherry. BODIDDLY: You know your Mama ain’t gonna do no cooking this time of the night!2001, Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad, Dolan Hubbard, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Gospel Plays, Opera, and Later Dramatic Works, page 204
Also used as
cooking is also the present participle and gerund of cook.
cooking meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
cooking in Hindi
- 1. the process of preparing food by using heat
- पकाना pakānā
cooking in Urdu
- کھانا پکانا
cooking in Bengali
- 1. the process of preparing food by using heat
- রান্না ranna
cooking in Telugu
- 1. the process of preparing food by using heat
- వంట vaṇṭa
- 3.2. the style or genre of food preparation; cookery; cuisine
- వంట vaṇṭa
More languagesFewer languages
- cooking in Malayalam
- പാചകം pācakaṁ
- cooking in Kannada
- ಅಡುಗೆ, ಅಡುಗೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು, ಅಡುಗೆ ಮಾಡೋದು
- cooking in Odia
- ରନ୍ଧନ, ରୋଷେଇ କରିବା
- cooking in Nepali
- खाना पकाउने
- cooking in Tagalog
- luto, pagluluto
- cooking in Arabic
- طَبْخ ṭabḵ
Examples of cooking in a sentence
- Of nutritional benefit in cooking is a short cooking time in a minimal amount of water or steaming the vegetables.2014, Vickie Vaclavik, Elizabeth W. Christian, Essentials of Food Science, page 97:
- Historian Madeleine Pelner Cosman addresses the multiple cookings of single dishes in medieval recipes.2004, Michael Symons, A History of Cooks and Cooking, page 95:
- "I know his cooking is bad, but […]" She fluffed the pillows and placed them behind Suzanne's neck.2005, Diana Kirk, Sex, Lies and Rodeo Games, page 67:
- His cooking is good to mediocre and most of the time, simple and filling.2012, J. M. Waters, Grey Falcon, page 14:
Synonyms of cooking
Forms of cooking
| plural | cookings |
|---|
Origin of cooking
From cook + -ing. The noun and adjective follow from the verb. The use of the word cooking to describe cheap bitter was popularized by the title character of the BBC sitcom Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1974-1978). It refers to cooking sherry, a kind of sherry used in cooking but not suitable for drinking on its own.
Words formed from cooking
Phrases with cooking
- cooking up
- cooking box
- cooking off
- cooking out
- cooking pot
- cooking back
- cooking oils
- cooking pots
- cooking soda
- cooking apple
- cooking bases
- cooking boxes
26 more phrasesFewer phrases
- cooking plate
- cooking shows
- cooking spray
- cooking timer
- cooking times
- cooking apples
- cooking bitter
- cooking lagers
- cooking on gas
- cooking plates
- cooking sprays
- what's cooking
- cooking bitters
- cooking liquors
- cooking through
- cooking torches
- cooking turners
- cooking utensil
- freezer cooking
- cooking sherries
- cooking utensils
- cooking with gas
- cooking the books
- cooking up a storm
- now you're cooking
- cooking someone's goose
Words that rhyme with cooking
Questions about cooking
- What does cooking mean?
- Cooking means the process of preparing food by using heat.
- What is cooking in Hindi?
- Cooking in Hindi is पकाना (pakānā). See Cooking meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cooking in a sentence?
- Of nutritional benefit in cooking is a short cooking time in a minimal amount of water or steaming the vegetables.
- What part of speech is cooking?
- Cooking can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce cooking?
- Cooking is pronounced /ˈkʊkɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cooking?
- The plural of cooking is cookings.
Words near cooking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cooking (page history and authors); cooking (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cooking (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cooking (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cooking (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-cooking.wav.
Cite this entry: “cooking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cooking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.