cook

cookverb

American /kʊk/ British /kʊk/ Cook rhymes with book.

third-person singular cooks past tense cooked past participle cooked present participle cooking

very commondefining vocabulary

make foodmake food ready to eat by heating it
transitive or intransitive [T/I] verb + object [V + obj] verb + two objects [V + obj + obj] verb + object + preposition + object [V + obj + prep + obj] cooking
- Who's cooking tonight?
- I cooked a big dinner for my parents. V + obj + prep + obj
- He cooked us some eggs. V + obj + obj
- My grandmother taught me how to cook.
Collocations
verb + noun cook dinner, cook a meal, cook rice, cook vegetables
verb + preposition cook for someone
verb + adverb cook slowly, cook well
Compare bake; boil; fry
be heatedbe heated until it is ready to eat
The subject is the food, not the person.
intransitive [I] verb + adverb or preposition [V + adv/prep] cooking
- The rice is still cooking.
- Let the vegetables cook slowly over a low heat. V + adv/prep
- Cover the pan while the meat cooks.
Collocations
verb + adverb cook slowly, cook gently, cook evenly

Word family

cook
cooking
cooker

Choosing between cook · make

Use cook when food is heated: cook pasta, cook dinner. Use make for any food or drink that is prepared, heated or not: make a salad, make a sandwich, make coffee. Make dinner and cook dinner are both common.

Common mistakes

My father is a very good cooker. My father is a very good cook.
A person who cooks is a cook. A cooker is a machine for cooking in British English.

For translators

Meaning across languages Many languages have separate verbs for heating food in water, in oil, or in an oven. Cook is the general word that covers all of them.