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cookout

cookout

21 1.9
An outdoor meal where people make and eat food, often on a grill
  • noun
  • /ˈkʊkaʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : barbacoa
  • Day and night cookouts and beach parties and boozy days on the lake and weddings.
  • backyard cookout
  • summer cookout
  • family cookout

And so they had they they had all the cookouts and stuff like that.

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Examples

  • Sometimes the soft, convivial sounds of a cocktail party or a backyard cookout reach the street.

    Academic text (1995)
  • So if somebody's doing like a cookout, a backyard grill, even just smelling the smell of meat cooking.

  • We'll have a cookout, celebrate his turning eight a day early.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Gentlemen, there will be a cookout in the park at 3 P.M.

  • I was wondering if you, Pete, and Louis want to come over for a cookout tonight.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • It was the best cookout ever.

  • It was actually a really nice cookout.

  • On Thursday evening, we're having Nick's family for a cookout so that LJ can visit with them.

    Blog text (13)
  • The money allowed my father to indulge his shyness; he no longer had to attend company cookouts or play on the company softball team.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • For the 4th of July, the DeJesus family hosted a backyard cookout bustling with relatives and neighbors.

Synonyms

barbecue
vscookout
144 1.2

An outdoor meal where people cook food on a grill and eat together

is a casual outdoor meal usually focusing on simple grill cooking
potluck
vscookout
25 3.5

A meal where everyone brings a dish to share

is about an informal outdoor meal cooked and eaten together, not guest contributions
barbeque
vscookout
  • US
4 1.0

A meal where people cook food outdoors on a grill and eat together

is a general informal outdoor meal rather than a specific roasting style
good barbecue
vscookout
2 1.0

A fun outdoor meal where people cook and eat together

is the informal outdoor meal focused on cooking and eating rather than enjoyment
weenie roast
vscookout
  • Informal
2 7.2

An informal outdoor gathering where people cook hot dogs over an open fire

is the general outdoor meal for many foods rather than this specific snack focus
wiener roast
vscookout
  • Informal
7.1

A casual outdoor party where people cook hot dogs over a fire and eat them

is broader, covering any informal outdoor meal not only one focused on frankfurters

How Big

feast
162 1.9
barbecue
144 1.2
cookout
  • Informal
21 1.9
picnic
244 1.0

Surface Forms

cookout singular
cookouts plural

Morphology

cookout = cook (transparent) = out + cook

Clear compound of 'cook' + 'out' meaning an outdoor event involving cooking, which learners can infer from the parts. [Postprocessing: moved 'out' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Cookout is made from the English parts cook and out, meaning 'to cook' and 'outside', so it literally describes cooking outdoors. A helpful image is a picnic with a grill or open fire, which is why a cookout is an informal outdoor meal.