Grilling, roasting, or preparing vegetables, seafood, or meat over an open fire, mainly outdoors: "On warm evenings in the summer, Susan always barbecued different kinds of vegetables along with fish in her family garden."

1. A metal grill or frame used as an outdoor fireplace for roasting meat, vegetables, or fish: "The barbecue grill became very black after grilling the sausages and had to be cleaned."
2. The carcass of the whole animal, or a section of it, which is prepared on a spit: "John watched the barbecue being rotated over an outdoor fire and was looking forward to his first piece of beef."
3. An informal gathering of people outside often in the garden or in a park, where food is grilled or roasted over an open fire: "The barbecue consisted of the whole Nelson clan gathered in the backyard where various meats and fish were prepared."
4. Etymology: from the American Spanish word barbacoa from Taino (Haiti), "a framework of sticks".