Meaning & use
cooked
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Prepared for eating by heating, for example by boiling, baking or frying.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a verb: cooked rice, the rice is cooked.
Patterns
- cooked food
- fully cooked
The cooked vegetables were soft and sweet.
Make sure the chicken is fully cooked before serving.
Cooked meals were provided on the ferry.
adjectiveafter a verbinformalslang
Ruined, doomed or in serious trouble, with little chance of success.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb: if she finds out, we're cooked.
Patterns
- be cooked
- get cooked
If the boss finds the error, I'm cooked.
The team was cooked after losing both starters.
We are cooked unless the rain stops.
adjectivebefore a nouninformal
Falsified or altered dishonestly, as in cooked figures.
Grammar: Comes from cook the books; applies to numbers or records.
Patterns
- cooked books
- cooked figures
The auditors uncovered cooked accounts at the firm.
Investigators suspected cooked sales figures.
The report was based on cooked data.
Common combinations
- cooked breakfast
- The hotel serves a full cooked breakfast.
- well cooked
- The steak was well cooked and juicy.
- freshly cooked
- We sat down to freshly cooked pasta.
- home-cooked
- After travelling, I longed for a home-cooked meal.
- cooked through
- Bake until the cake is cooked through.
- cooked books
- Cooked books hid the company's losses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- baked
- Baked refers only to cooking with dry oven heat, whereas cooked is the general word for any heat.
- prepared
- Prepared is broader and may include food that needs no heat, such as a salad.
- done
- Done means ready, and is typically used after a verb; cooked can sit before the noun as well.
- doomed
- Doomed is the serious word for certain failure, while informal cooked sounds lighter and casual.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: cooked or cooker? cooked or cooked up?
cooked vs cooker
A cooker is an appliance (British), not food that has been heated.
cooked vs cooked up
Cooked up is a phrasal use meaning invented, as in a plan; it is not about food.
Practice
The doctor said the eggs must be ___ thoroughly before the child eats them.
Choose one answer.
After must be, a past participle or adjective is needed, and cooked fits. Cooker is a noun, cooking is a participle that makes no sense, and cooks is a verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cooked”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.