barbecue

English

Marinated beef grilling on a barbecue.
A plate of barbecue (foreground) with sauce, beans and bread.

Alternative forms

  • (apparatus; event; meat): barbeque; bar-be-que, bar-b-que, bar-B-Q, bar-b-q (informal forms based on the abbreviation)
  • (apparatus; event): barbie (Australia, NZ, UK, informal abbreviation)
  • (event; meat): BBQ (informal abbreviation)
  • (meat): 'cue, 'que, que (US, informal shortenings)

Etymology

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”.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɑːbɪˌkjuː/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɑɹbɪˌkju/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: bar‧be‧cue

Noun

barbecue (countable and uncountable, plural barbecues)

  1. A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
    We cooked our food on the barbecue.
  2. A meal or event highlighted by food cooked in such an apparatus.
    We're having a barbecue on Saturday, and you're invited.
  3. 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.
    She ordered a plate of barbecue with a side of slaw.
  4. (dated) A hog, ox, or other large animal roasted or broiled whole for a feast.
  5. A floor on which coffee beans are sun-dried.
    • 2000, Andrew Gerald Gravette, Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean, page 227:
      Drying the coffee beans took place in a barbecue, basically a large, flat platform, where the pulped coffee beans could be laid out and turned as they dried. Barbecues were often walled around and raised above ground level.
  6. (obsolete) A framework of sticks.
    • 1705, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions, Volume 2, London: James Knapton, “A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World,” Chapter 5, p. 90,
      We found no Houses of Entertainment on the Road, yet at every Village we came we got Houseroom, and a Barbacue of split Bambooes to sleep on.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

barbecue (third-person singular simple present barbecues, present participle barbecuing, simple past and past participle barbecued)

  1. To cook food on a barbecue; to smoke it over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels.
  2. To grill.

Translations


Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English barbecue.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbɑrbəkju/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: bar‧be‧cue

Noun

barbecue m (plural barbecues, diminutive barbecuetje n)

  1. barbecue

Derived terms

Verb

barbecue

  1. first-person singular present indicative of barbecueën
  2. imperative of barbecueën
  3. first-person singular present indicative of barbecuen
  4. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of barbecuen
  5. imperative of barbecuen

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English barbecue.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baʁ.bə.ky/
  • (file)

Noun

barbecue m (plural barbecues)

  1. barbecue

Further reading

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