cook up

phrasal verb

cooked up; cooking up; cooks up

1

: to prepare (food) for eating especially quickly

I can cook up some hamburgers.

He cooked this whole meal up in less than 30 minutes.

2

: to invent (something, such as an idea, excuse, etc.) to deal with a particular situation

They cooked up a scheme to fool their neighbor.

You'll have to cook an excuse up quickly.

Examples of cook up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Maybe next year all those award-winning Hollywood minds can cook up something a little more invigorating for the rest of us. —Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 3 Mar. 2025

Participants on horseback ride from town to town begging for ingredients to cook up a big batch of communal gumbo in Mamou. —Gqlshare, Orange County Register, 19 Feb. 2025

European leaders do not have to abide by whatever deal Trump cooks up with Putin for Ukraine. —Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, 19 Feb. 2025

Wonder still cooks up its meals at three centralized kitchens but now ships them out to 37 locations across five states. —Phoebe Liu, Forbes, 8 Feb. 2025

Rhymes for cook up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup