Definition of BARBECUE

barbecue

Meanings

Plural: barbecues

Noun

  • meat that has been barbecued or grilled in a highly seasoned sauce
  • a cookout in which food is cooked over an open fire; especially a whole animal carcass roasted on a spit
  • a rack to hold meat for cooking over hot charcoal usually out of doors
  • A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
  • A meal or event highlighted by food cooked in such an apparatus.
  • Meat, especially pork or beef, which has been cooked in such an apparatus (i.e. smoked over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels) and then chopped up or shredded.
  • A hog, ox, or other large animal roasted or broiled whole for a feast.
  • A floor on which coffee beans are sun-dried.
  • A framework of sticks.

Verb

  • cook outdoors on a barbecue grill
    • "let's barbecue that meat"
  • To cook food on a barbecue; to smoke food over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels.
  • To grill.
  • To kill or destroy using high heat or fire; to cook; to burn.

Origin / Etymology

From mid-17th century. Borrowed from Spanish barbacoa, from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. Originally “meal of roasted meat or fish”. Doublet of balbacua and barbacoa.

Synonyms

barbeque, braai, buccan, compare grill, cook out, cookout

Scrabble Score: 14

barbecue is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
barbecue is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
barbecue is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

barbecue is a valid Words With Friends word