kitchen

[ kich-uhn ]

noun

1. a room or place equipped for cooking:

   The apartment has a full kitchen with an oven and dishwasher.

2. the staff involved in food preparation in a restaurant or eatery:

   He called the kitchen to make sure they could accommodate his allergies.

3. culinary department; cuisine:

   This restaurant has a fine Italian kitchen.

4. the equipment and fixtures needed to make a room suitable for cooking:

   We bought a kitchen, but it still needs to be installed.

5. Sports. (on a pickleball court) a seven-foot zone on either side of the net from which players are prohibited from returning the ball before it hits the ground.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or designed for use in a room equipped for cooking:

   There's a view of the yard from the kitchen window.

   We got a new, more colorful set of kitchen curtains.

2. employed in or assigned to a place or business that makes food:

   Kitchen staff and volunteers worked together to feed over 500 food-insecure people.

kitchen

/ ˈkɪtʃɪn /

noun

1. 1. a room or part of a building equipped for preparing and cooking food
   2. ( as modifier )

      a kitchen table

Other Words From

• kitch·en·less adjective
• kitch·en·y adjective
• out·kitch·en noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of kitchen¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English kichene, Old English cycene ≪ Latin coquīna, equivalent to coqu(ere) “to cook” + -īna -ine ¹; cuisine

Word History and Origins

Origin of kitchen¹

Old English cycene, ultimately from Late Latin coquīna, from Latin coquere to cook ; see kiln

Idioms and Phrases

see everything but the kitchen sink ; if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen .

Example Sentences

She said her husband was standing in front of the kitchen sink.

From BBC

Lyn Anne MacKinnon told the High Court in Edinburgh she heard what sounded like shots and then found her husband standing in the kitchen, before he collapsed into her arms.

From BBC

Beauty was also coyly positioned, always in view of my and my brother’s drifting curiosities, like the framed print of “Jammin’ at the Savoy” by Romare Bearden that she hung just outside the kitchen’s entrance that I loved so much, that I sometimes wanted to live inside of, debonair and irreducibly cool like Bearden’s jazz men.

From Los Angeles Times

She remembers sitting at the kitchen table doing her homework when her mom fell and Rigelhaupt didn’t respond the way her mom thought she should.

From Los Angeles Times

Except it wasn’t a terrifying beast — it was a person in a bear costume using a kitchen tool designed to shred meat, authorities said.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• gallery