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Glite Dictionary
barbecued spareribs

barbecued spareribs

2.1
Pork ribs cooked with a spicy sauce, often over a grill
  • noun
  • /ˈbɑrbɪˌkjud ˈspɛrˌɪbz/
translation icon : costillas a la barbacoa
  • It had been years since Frieda had last tasted three-spice chicken, and nearly a decade since she'd dared to order barbecued spareribs.

Examples

  • For dinner, we ordered a platter of barbecued spareribs with their signature sauce.

  • The restaurant is famous for its delicious barbecued spareribs served with coleslaw.

  • I can't wait to try the barbecued spareribs at the new barbecue place downtown.

Synonyms

spareribs
vsbarbecued spareribs
  • US
2.8

Pieces of pork ribs cooked and served, often with barbecue sauce

specifies pork cooked by baking or roasting and coated in spicy barbecue sauce

Surface Forms

barbecued spareribs singular
barbecued spareribs plural

Morphology

barbecued + spareribs

The phrase combines the adjective 'barbecued' (cooked with smoke or barbecue sauce) with the noun 'spareribs' (pork ribs), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it means pork ribs prepared in a barbecue style. This compositional adjective + noun pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, making the meaning predictable for B1 learners.

Etymology

Barbecued spareribs shows the food itself: spareribs are pork ribs and barbecued means cooked slowly with smoke and a spicy sauce. So it simply means 'pork ribs baked or roasted with a spicy barbecue sauce'.