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Glite Dictionary
💡 To invent 🍲 To prepare food
to cook up

to cook up

20 3.2
Prepare a quick meal by mixing ingredients you have
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʊk ʌp/
translation icon : preparar
  • I'm cooking up a storm and having a ball.
  • cook up a batch
  • cooking up a storm
  • cook up a meal

I like watching other people cooking up these incredible Christmas dishes.

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Examples

  • OK, I got another batch cooking up right now.

  • All right, so we got all this food ready to cook up a meal tomorrow.

  • - I want to cook up some good food

    Chef (2014)

  • I tell her because it's the only thing I can tell her: Are you cooking up something special tonight?

    Fiction book (1993)

  • So I'm just going to cook up a few things and pack my bag.

    Allana Davison

  • How about later, so I can cook up some treats?

    Max (2015)

  • We invaded her kitchen, and then she and we all cooked up dinner together really quickly.

    Blog text (7)

  • Where Aunt Audrey is cooking up a storm: a real southern breakfast.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • After they knock off work for the day, they all cook up hot dogs, spaghetti, or chili, and drink beer while watching TV.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I'm going to cook up a delicious pasta dish for dinner tonight.

Synonyms

to cook
vsto cook up
∞ 1.0

To prepare food by heating it, for example by boiling or frying

adds a sense of quick, creative mixing beyond simple heating
to prepare
vsto cook up
374 1.0

Cook food so it is ready to eat

adds speedy, inventive mixing as a defining feature
to whip up
vsto cook up
62 3.0

To quickly make food with little effort

stresses rapid, inventive mixing rather than low effort alone
to broil
vsto cook up
  • US
17 2.8

To cook food with strong heat from above so the top becomes brown or crispy

is about quick, creative mixing rather than direct high heat technique
to fry up
vsto cook up
7 2.9

Cook food in hot oil or fat

is broader, focusing on inventive, quick mixing rather than frying
to concoct
vsto cook up
7 6.3

Make food or drink by mixing different ingredients

focuses on quick, inventive preparation rather than just mixing ingredients
to stir-fry
vsto cook up
7 2.8

To cook food quickly in a small amount of hot oil while stirring

is about inventive mixing and speed rather than a specific frying technique
to bake up
vsto cook up
1 2.2

Make food in an oven like cakes or bread in a quick new way

is about quick, inventive mixing rather than only oven methods
to whomp up
vsto cook up
  • Informal
9.5

Make a quick meal often from leftovers

focuses on inventive preparation rather than mere haste

How Quickly

to throw together
  • Informal
22 3.5
to whip up
62 3.0
to cook up
20 3.2
to cook
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

cook up infinitive
cooked up past
cooked up past participle
cooking up present participle
cooks up third person singular

Morphology

cook + up

The meaning 'to prepare or make (a dish)' is directly derivable from combining 'cook' (prepare food) with the particle 'up', which adds a sense of completion or quick/inventive preparation; this compositional pattern is common and predictable for learners. Note that the provided definition of 'cook' in the input is the figurative 'cook the books' sense and is irrelevant here — using the ordinary 'prepare food' sense makes the expression clearly transparent to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

The phrasal verb cook up comes from the literal act of cooking: to cook something up is to mix ingredients and prepare a dish, often quickly or with what you have. That's why it means 'to prepare or make' a meal, sometimes in a creative or fast way.