1. [n]  someone who cooks food
2. [n]  English navigator who claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain and discovered several Pacific islands (1728-1779)
3. [v]  transform and make suitable for consumption by heating; "These potatoes have to cook for 20 minutes"
4. [v]  transform by heating; "The apothecary cooked the medicinal mixture in a big iron kettle"
5. [v]  prepare for eating by applying heat; "Cook me dinner, please"; "can you make me an omelette?"; "fix breakfast for the guests, please"
6. [v]  prepare a hot meal; "My husband doesn't cook"
7. [v]  fake or falsify; "Fudge the figures"; "cook the books"; "falsify the data"

1. \Cook\ (k[=oo]k), v. i. [Of imitative origin.]
   To make the noise of the cuckoo. [Obs. or R.]
   
         Constant cuckoos cook on every side.     --The
                                                  Silkworms
                                                  (1599).
   
   

2. \Cook\ (k[oo^]k), v. t. [Etymol. unknown.]
   To throw. [Prov.Eng.] ``Cook me that ball.'' --Grose.
   
   

3. \Cook\ (k[oo^]k), n. [AS. c[=o]c, fr. l. cocus, coquus,
   coquus, fr. coquere to cook; akin to Gr. ?, Skr. pac, and to
   E. apricot, biscuit, concoct, dyspepsia, precocious. Cf.
   {Pumpkin}.]
   1. One whose occupation is to prepare food for the table; one
      who dresses or cooks meat or vegetables for eating.
   
   2. (Zo["o]l.) A fish, the European striped wrasse.
   
   

4. \Cook\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Cooked}; p. pr & vb. n.
   {Cooking}.]
   1. To prepare, as food, by boiling, roasting, baking,
      broiling, etc.; to make suitable for eating, by the agency
      of fire or heat.
   
   2. To concoct or prepare; hence, to tamper with or alter; to
      garble; -- often with up; as, to cook up a story; to cook
      an account. [Colloq.]
   
            They all of them receive the same advices from
            abroad, and very often in the same words; but their
            way of cooking it is so different.    --Addison.
   
   
   
   

5. \Cook\ (k[oo^]k), v. i.
   To prepare food for the table.
   
   

a person employed to perform culinary service. In early times among the Hebrews cooking was performed by the mistress of the household (Gen. 18:2-6; Judg. 6:19), and the process was very expeditiously performed (Gen. 27:3, 4, 9, 10). Professional cooks were afterwards employed (1 Sam. 8:13; 9:23). Few animals, as a rule, were slaughtered (other than sacrifices), except for purposes of hospitality (Gen. 18:7; Luke 15:23). The paschal lamb was roasted over a fire (Ex. 12:8, 9; 2Chr. 35:13). Cooking by boiling was the usual method adopted (Lev. 8:31; Ex. 16:23). No cooking took place on the Sabbath day (Ex. 35:3).