barbecue
/ˈbɑɹbɪˌkju/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.62 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A hog, ox, or other large animal roasted or broiled whole for a feast.
Countable; Dated; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We cooked our food on the barbecue."
- "We're having a barbecue on Saturday, and you're invited."
- "The difference here is that the protagonists in this collection are, for the most part, at the end of their lives, and so the news of familial drama and divorce and the cocktail parties, barbecues and casual wooings of quotidian life in suburbia is given retrospectively, wistfully, presented in the larger context as memories of lost moments and lost opportunities."
- "She ordered a plate of barbecue with a side of slaw."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɑɹbɪˌkju/
- British English: /ˈbɑːbɪˌkjuː/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.
Inflected Forms
barbecues (plural)
barbeque (alternative, informal)
bar-be-que (alternative, informal)
bar-b-que (alternative, informal)
bar-B-Q (alternative, informal)
barbie (alternative, Australia)
BBQ (alternative, abbreviation)
'cue (alternative)
'que (alternative)
que (alternative)
barbecues (present, singular)
barbecuing (participle, present)