Word.ws English Dictionary

cooking with gas

cooking with gas phrase: functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.

Phrase

cooking with gas

  1. (idiomatic, informal) Functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.
    • She said, 'What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know.'
      The blind man said, 'We're drawing a cathedral. Me and him are working on it. Press hard,' he said to me. 'That's right. That's good,' he said. 'Sure. You got it, bub. I can tell. You didn't think you could. But you can, can't you? You're...1983, Raymond Carver, Cathedral (short story)
    • With the updated software, I was really cooking with gas. I got the project done in half the time.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cook, with, gas.

cooking with gas meaning in Bengali

cooking with gas in Bengali

উল্লেখযোগ্য কিছু অর্জন করা

Forms of cooking with gas

alternative formcooking on gas

Origin of cooking with gas

To cook with natural gas fuel has been occurring since at least the 19th century when the petroleum industry came into being and new products and markets were developed. The idiomatic phrase entered the popular lexicon as part of an advertising slogan in late 1930s or early 1940s, for American Gas Association. The slogan "Now you're cooking with gas!" was coined by Deke Houlgate, an employee of AGA, who worked with Bob Hope to insert the phrase into his comedy routines as subtle product placement. The initial idea was to compete with the increasing popularity of electric stoves in the 1930s. However by 1940 it came to have a broader idiomatic usage and figurative meaning because of the way it was used by Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny and even a Daffy Duck cartoon, eclipsing its original intent as advertising. The slogan was repeated throughout the 1941-1942 radio season by many radio stars. Also used by jazz musicians to praise a performance.

Questions about cooking with gas

What does cooking with gas mean?
Cooking with gas means functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.
What is cooking with gas in Bengali?
Cooking with gas in Bengali is উল্লেখযোগ্য কিছু অর্জন করা. See Cooking with gas meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is cooking with gas?
Cooking with gas is a phrase.

Words near cooking with gas in the dictionary

  1. cooking turners
  2. cooking up
  3. cooking up a storm
  4. cooking utensil
  5. cooking utensils
  6. cooking with gas
  7. cooking-pot
  8. cooking-pots
  9. cookings
  10. cookingware
  11. cookish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cooking with gas (page history and authors); cooking with gas (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: en-au-cooking with gas.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cooking with gas.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cooking_with_gas. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.