chef

nounverbcommon in dialogue

//ʃɛf//
//t͡ʃɛf//

The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.

noun

1
The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board.
2
The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
The cause of the disturbance, it appeared, was the angry little chef of Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment.
3
Any cook.
My partner is the chef of the household, while I do most of the cleaning.
4
slangOne who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook.
But trying to stop all the nation's meth chefs makes as much sense as building a wall along the Mexican border.
Owsley Stanley, the world's most exacting and prolific LSD chef who supplied the majority of America's West Coast with LSD in the 1960s, claimed he made so much acid not because he wanted to change the world, but rather because it was almost impossible not to make vast quantities of the drug once the synthesis had been embarked upon.
5
historicalA reliquary in the shape of a head.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine), from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin capus (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (possibly related to English cap (“head covering”)). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, and chief through Latin, and head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.

verb

1
informalTo work as a chef; to prepare and cook food professionally.
It was Brick who talked on alumni relations with the active chapters and who cheffed at our steak fry (more of that later) and Mrs. Cowles who took over […]
I cheffed part-time at a nice restaurant in town.
He opened Oakleys in 2002, having formerly cheffed at the late, much-missed Something Different and, before that, world-renowned kitchens in Chicago […]
A man called Richard Briggs cheffed at the Globe Tavern on Fleet Street, the White Hart Tavern in Holborn and the Temple Coffee House.
2
To stab with a knife, to shank.
He got cheffed up proper.
Still on my knife work chef him up with that rambo
Child just said he'd "chef me up". I said not hungry, but it restored my faith in young generation, offering to cook for strangers.
He got cheffed in the A in the head
3
To impress others.
thinkin' that I be cheffin'.'

Forms

plural: chefs
past tense: cheffed
past participle: cheffed
present participle: cheffing
third person singular: chefs

cheesecake · A pie made of sweetened and flavoured cottage cheese or cream…cheesy · Of or relating to cheese.cheetah · A distinctive member (Acinonyx jubatus) of the cat family,…

chef · The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.

Chelsea · An urban area in west London, on the north bank of the river…chemical · Of or relating to chemistry.chemicals · The chemical industry.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.