cooking with gas

English

Alternative forms

• cooking on gas

Etymology

From the suggestion, heavily advertised in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that stoves using natural gas as a fuel cook more effectively than, for instance, wood-burning or electric stoves.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Phrase

cooking with gas

1. (idiomatic) Functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.
   • 1983, Raymond Carver, 'Cathedral' (short story)

     She said, 'What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know.'
     The blind man said, 'We're drawing a cathedral. Me and him are working on it. Press hard,' he said to me. 'That's right. That's good,' he said. 'Sure. You got it, bub. I can tell. You didn't think you could. But you can, can't you? You're cooking with gas now. You know what I'm saying? We're really going to have us something here in a minute. How's the old arm?' he said. 'Put some people in there now. What's a cathedral without people?'

   With the updated software, I was really cooking with gas. I got the project done in half the time.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cook,‎ with,‎ gas.

Usage notes

• Grammatically, a use of the "-ing" form of cook + the prepositional phrase "with gas". Together with a form of be this forms a progressive verb predicate. Only rarely are other forms used in this idiomatic sense.

See also

• now you're cooking