barbecue

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

Verb Forms: barbecued, barbecuing, barbecues

To cook food over an open fire, often with sauce.
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.

Examples

My opponent’s strategy is to barbecue me by blocking every high-scoring spot.
She ordered a plate of barbecue with a side of slaw.
We cooked our food on the barbecue.
We're having a barbecue on Saturday, and you're invited.

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

Scrabble Score: 14

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

Words With Friends Score: 18

barbecue: valid Words With Friends Word