Definition of "barbecue" in English

noun

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.

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.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To cook food on a barbecue; to smoke food over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To grill.

3. (slang, somewhat derogatory, transitive) To kill or destroy using high heat or fire; to cook; to burn.