2[intransitiveI]DFCCOOK to be prepared for eating by using heat 烧,煮
He could smell something delicious cooking.
他闻到了正在烧什么美味的东西。
Hamburgers were cooking in the kitchen.
厨房里在做汉堡包。
3cook the booksCHANGE/MAKE something DIFFERENTto dishonestly change official records and figures in order to steal money or give people false information 做假账;篡改资料
The Government was cooking the books and misleading the public.
政府在篡改数据误导公众。
Examples from the Corpus
cook the books• Officials at the bank were found to have cooked the books.• We've just found out Alec's been cooking the books.• One solution would be to make the cities more habitable, but a much more sure-fire way is cooking the books.• The directors of the company made millions from cooking the books before the fraudinvestigatorscaught them.• Martin I hate to disturb you when you're cooking the books, but there's a delivery.• When it came to cooking the books, Dennis was in the Raymond Blanc class.• Lost himself in a welter of ambitions, unsafebuildings, cheapermaterials; he cooked the books to make more blocks.
4be cookinginformalPLAN to be being planned in a secret way 秘密计划;密谋
They’ve got something cooking, and I don’t think I like it.
cook up• He hadn't eaten all day, so he opened one of them and cooked it up.• Idly I wonderedwhy he insisted on them being cooked sunny side up.• Instead, Miss Arabel wrote, in her neat, tidyscript, and Mr Surtees Cook.• The cooks were up at 0500 hours, preparing the usual early breakfast for men condemned to hard work.• Yes, of course he did, probably thought she and Donal had cooked it up between them.• The cook stood up on the forward side, so that the shedprotected him when there was a favourablewind.• The kitchen with a small staffcooked or warmed up the men's food free of charge.• We then add a blend of other unusualrices to it and cook them up together.
nGrammar
Cook belongs to a group of verbs where the same noun can be the subject of the verb or its object.
You can say:
I’m cooking some pasta.
In this sentence, ‘some pasta’ is the object of cook.
You can say:
Some pasta is cooking.
In this sentence, ‘some pasta’ is the subject of cook.
nCOLLOCATIONS
nouns
cook a meal
Shall I cook the meal tonight?
cook breakfast/lunch/dinner
Kate was in the kitchen cooking dinner.
cook food
The book also gives advice on healthy ways of cooking food.
cook rice/pasta/sausages etc
Cook the pasta for about 8 minutes.
adverbs
cook something gently/slowly (=on a low heat)
Reduce the heat and cook gently for 20 minutes.
cook something well/thoroughly (=until it has definitely cooked for a long enough time)
Beans should always be cooked well.
be cooked through (=in the middle as well as on the outside)
Fry the fish until golden and cooked through.
cook something evenly (=until all of it is equally well cooked )
Turn the pie several times to cook it evenly.
phrases
be cooked to perfection (=be cooked exactly the right amount, so it is perfect)
All the dishes were cooked to perfection by the French chef.
THESAURUS
to cook something 烹饪
cook to prepare a meal or food for eating by using heat 烹调,煮,烧
1BODFCsomeone who prepares and cooks food as their job 厨师,炊事员SYN chef
He works as a cook in a local restaurant.
他在本地的一家饭店里当厨师。
2.be a good/wonderful/terrible etc cookCOOKto be good or bad at preparing and cooking food 是个好/出色/糟糕等的厨师
Examples from the Corpus
be a good/wonderful/terrible etc cook• As a result, the adultJohn is obsessed with food, has an overstockedfridge and is a good cook.• He is a good cook, isn't he?• My aunt and I are good cooks.• Nils may be a good cook, but his time will be betterspent away from the galley.• Of motivation to get good grades in school or to be a good cook?• Franca, said to be a good cook, was not a good cook, just an ingenious cook.• To be a good cook you have to do a lot of things precisely, but it requires no understanding.• Zelah was a good cook and he enjoyed the meal.
3.too many cooks (spoil the broth)TOO/TOO MUCHused when you think there are too many people trying to do the samejob at the same time, so that the job is not done well 厨师太多(烧坏汤),人多添乱
Examples from the Corpus
too many cooks (spoil the broth)• If too many cooksspoil the broth, too many Popes tarnish the faith!• There were too many cooks, they said.