micutrition.html -
verb and adjective (Lifestyle and Leisure) transitive or intransitive verb: To cook (food) in a microwave oven; to be suitable for or undergo microwave cooking. adjective: (Of food or food containers) intended for cooking in a microwave oven; microwavable. Etymology: Formed by changing the
grammatical function of microwave, originally the name of the type of electromagnetic wave which is passed through the food to cook it; by the mid seventies, though, it was already being used
widely as a short name for a microwave oven. History and
Usage : Microwave ovens were in widespread use in the US by the late sixties and in the UK by the seventies; the development of a verb meaning 'to cook by microwaves or in a microwave oven' was to be expected as soon as the cooker had become a standard household item, and in
fact the earliest uses of the verb date from the mid seventies. The regular adjective for food which has been cooked in this way is microwaved. During the early eighties, a number of food and cookware manufacturers started to describe their products as microwavable (or microwaveable), but in speech most people described them simply as microwave;
this informal use eventually also found its
way into
print and is occasionally used as a synonym for microwaved, too.
He went to the pub and had a microwave
mince and onion pie and crinkle-cut
chips . Sue Townsend The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984), p.
59 When cooking or reheating: food should be very hot throughout--when you take it
out of a conventional
oven , or after
standing times when microwaving, it should
be too hot to eat immediately. Which? Apr. 1990, p.
205 It was only last year that the F.D.A. learned that dioxin...was migrating from bleached paperboard cartons into milk and fruit juices and from microwave meal packages. New York Times 7 May 1990, section D, p. 11
