Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Cook \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.

Source : WordNet®

cooking
     n : the act of preparing something (as food) by the application
         of heat; "cooking can be a great art"; "people are needed
         who have experience in cookery"; "he left the preparation
         of meals to his wife" [syn: {cookery}, {preparation}]