kettle
nounverbnouncommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈkɛ.təl//
- United States/[ˈkʰɛɾɫ̩]/
- //ˈkɛ.təl//
- /[ˈkʰɛtᵊɫ̩]/
A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.
noun
- 1
A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.
To cook pasta, you first need to put the kettle on.
There's a hot kettle of soup on the stove.
- 2
The quantity held by a kettle.
- 3
A vessel or appliance used to boil water for the preparation of hot beverages and other foodstuffs.
Stick the kettle on and we'll have a nice cup of tea.
- 4
A kettle hole, sometimes any pothole.
- 5
A group of raptors swirling and spiraling upward as they ride a thermal, especially when migrating.
a kettle of hawks
Kettles can consist of thousands of birds migrating together.
the "River of Raptors" - an enormous kettle of hawks - circles over Cardel, in Veracruz, Mexico, in early October
then a pure Swainsons's hawk kettle of about 50 birds
- 6
slangA steam locomotive.
- 7
A kettledrum.
- 8
An instance of kettling; a group of protesters or rioters confined in a limited area.
- 9
slangA watch (timepiece).
- 10
A bucket for holding a quantity of paint during the painting process.
- 11
A type of encirclement.
Near-synonym: cauldron
- 12
Variant of kettle of fishfigurativeEllipsis of kettle of fish.
Near-synonyms: cauldron, pickle; see also Thesaurus:difficult situation
Well, we're really in a kettle now, aren't we?
Etymology
From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old English ċietel (“kettle, cauldron”) and in Middle English possibly influenced by Old Norse ketill and both from Proto-Germanic *katilaz (“kettle, bucket, vessel”), of uncertain origin and formation. Usually regarded as a borrowing of Late Latin catīllus (“small bowl”), diminutive of Latin catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“cauldron, kettle”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (katils, “kettle”), Finnish kattila, Polish kocioł (“cauldron”), Czech kotel (“boiler”), Russian котёл (kotjól, “boiler, cauldron”). (watch): Cockney rhyming slang from 'kettle and hob' to 'fob' (fob watch).
verb
- 1
To contain demonstrators in a confined area.
Life for senior officers has been made much easier by the use of counter-terrorism powers, which enable them to contain demonstrators for hours in a confined spot. This tactic, known as kettling, is seen by some as an attempt to prevent people lawfully demonstrating.
A couple of the initial pepper spray incidents went viral on YouTube, one showing very young women screaming hysterically while penned—or is the term for this ‘kettled’?—by bright orange police mesh.
- 2
Of a boiler: to make a whistling sound like the boiling of a kettle, indicative of various types of fault.
noun
- 1
Variant of kiddleAlternative form of kiddle (“kind of fishweir”).
Forms
- plural
- kettles
- past tense
- kettled
- past participle
- kettled
- present participle
- kettling
- third person singular
- kettles
kettle · A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.
Kettle · A surname.Kev · A diminutive of the male given name Kevin.Kevin · A male given name from Irish.