<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>pieces of meat, fowl, fish, or the like, roasted or smoked over fire, especially when basted in a barbecue sauce: The restaurant serves amazing barbecue.</li><li>a framework, such as a grill or a spit, for cooking meat or vegetables over an open fire: Make sure you clean off the barbecue so it's ready to use when we go camping.</li><li>a meal, usually in the open air and often as a social gathering, at which meats are roasted on a grill or over an open hearth or pit.</li><li>any social gathering centered around food, especially meat, that is cooked over fire using a grill, spit, smoker, or the like: Our weekend barbecue was lively until it started to rain.</li><li>a dressed steer, lamb, or other animal, roasted whole.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object):</strong></p><ul><li>bar·be·cued, bar·be·cu·ing. to broil, smoke, or roast (meat, fowl, fish, or the like) whole or in large pieces over an open fire, using a spit, grill, smoker, or the like, often seasoning with vinegar, spices, salt, and pepper: They barbecued a chicken and some steaks for dinner.</li><li>to cook (sliced or diced meat, fowl, fish, or the like) in a highly seasoned sauce.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object):</strong></p><ul><li>bar·be·cued, bar·be·cu·ing. to cook over an open fire using an instrument such as a grill, spit, or smoker, or to host a social gathering where food is cooked in this manner: If the weather's nice, we'll barbecue in the backyard.</li></ul>