Definition

1. Verb (intransitive):
   • To prepare and eat a meal outdoors, typically by grilling food over an open fire or on a barbecue.
   • To have a social gathering where food is cooked and eaten outside.

Usage

• The verb "cook out" describes the activity itself. It is often used to talk about plans or past events involving outdoor cooking.
• It is commonly used in the progressive tense (e.g., "are cooking out") or with auxiliary verbs like "will," "let's," or "should."
• Example: "We should this weekend if the weather is nice."

Examples

• Verb:
  • Every Saturday in the summer, our family cooks out on the patio.
  • They are cooking out at the lake house, so we're bringing salad.
  • We cooked out in the forest during our camping trip.

Advanced Usage

• "to have a cookout" (noun): This is a common related noun phrase meaning an outdoor social event where food is grilled. While "cookout" itself can be used as a noun, the primary target here is the verb phrase "to cook out."
  • Example: We're having a big cookout for the Fourth of July.

Variants and Related Words

• Barbecue (verb/noun): A very close synonym. As a verb, it means to cook food on a grill outdoors. As a noun, it refers to the event, the grilled food, or the cooking apparatus.
• Grill (verb): To cook food on a metal frame over direct heat. This is the primary action during a cookout.
• Picnic (noun/verb): A meal eaten outdoors, but the food is usually brought ready-to-eat, not necessarily cooked on-site.

Synonyms

• Barbecue
• Grill out

Related Phrasal Verbs / Compound Verbs

• (Not commonly used with additional particles. The phrase "cook out" itself functions as a phrasal verb.)

Related Idioms

• (No specific idioms use the exact phrase "cook out." The related noun "cookout" is used in phrases like "have a cookout" or "come to the cookout.")

Verb

1. cook outdoors on a barbecue grill
   • let's barbecue that meat
   • We cooked out in the forest