cooking with gas
1
7.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
funcionando a la perfección
- Now that's cooking with gas!
Examples
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With the new strategy in place, the sales team is cooking with gas.
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Now we're cooking with gas, and everything is running smoothly.
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After a slow start, the project is finally cooking with gas.
How Well
Surface Forms
Morphology
A literal interpretation ('cooking using gas') is directly derivable from the constituents, but the idiomatic sense 'performing very well/efficiently' is a metaphorical extension that depends on cultural knowledge (gas as a more powerful/effective fuel) and is not fully predictable from the parts. Because there is a motivated link to efficiency yet the specialized idiomatic meaning typically requires prior exposure, it is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
The idiom cooking with gas may come from kitchens in the 1900s where new gas stoves gave a strong, steady flame and cooked food faster than wood or coal. The literal words cooking and gas create a picture of things running well, so saying cooking with gas means 'doing very well' or 'working well'.