ENGLISH
REFERENCE

garlic

n. · v.
US //ˈɡɑɹɫɪk// UK //ɡˈɑːlɪk// gar·lic
  1. 1 the vegetable (n.)
    A2 Elementary Cooking

    a plant like a small onion with a strong smell and taste, used to flavour food.

    the pungent, edible bulb of Allium sativum, typically divided into separate cloves and used as a seasoning.

    Example

    I always add two cloves of garlic to my pasta sauce for extra flavour.

    Example

    The recipe calls for three cloves of crushed garlic, which should be sautéed gently to avoid the bitterness that results from burning.

    Usage

    Commonly used with the counter 'clove' for a single piece or 'bulb' for the whole head.

  2. 2 to add garlic to food (v.)
    C2 Proficiency Literary Cooking

    to add garlic to a dish to give it a strong flavour.

    to season or flavour a dish with garlic. This transitive use is less common than the noun form.

    Example

    The chef decided to garlic the bread before putting it in the oven.

    Example

    The roast was heavily garliced and rubbed with rosemary, filling the entire kitchen with a rich, savoury aroma.

    Teacher's tip

    While grammatically possible to use as a verb, most modern speakers prefer 'add garlic to' or 'season with garlic'.
Origin

Inherited from Middle English garlek, garlik, from Old English gārlēac (“garlic”, literally “spear-leek”), from gār ("spear"; in reference to its sharp, tapering leaves) + lēac (“leek”). Cognate with Scots garlic (“garlic”), Faroese geirleykur (“garlic”), Icelandic geirlaukur (“garlic”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Last updated June 20, 2026