kettle

• enPR: kĕt'(ə)l, IPA^(key): /ˈkɛ.təl/, [ˈkʰɛtᵊɫ̩]

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛ.təl/, [ˈkʰɛɾɫ̩]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (dated, regional US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪtəl/^[1]
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛʈɪl/, /-əl/
• Rhymes: -ɛtəl

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”).^[2]

(watch): Cockney rhyming slang from 'kettle and hob' to 'fob' (fob watch).

kettle (plural kettles)

2. (cooking) A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.

   Hypernym: vessel

   Coordinate terms: pot, cookpot, cooking pot, saucepan, pan, copper, cauldron, spider

   To cook pasta, you first need to put the kettle on.

   There's a hot kettle of soup on the stove.

3. The quantity held by a kettle.
5. A vessel or appliance used to boil water for the preparation of hot beverages and other foodstuffs.

   Synonym: teakettle

   Stick the kettle on and we'll have a nice cup of tea.

6. (geology) A kettle hole, sometimes any pothole.
8. (ornithology, collective) A group of raptors riding a thermal, especially when migrating.

   a kettle of hawks

   • 2010, Jean-Luc E. Cartron, Raptors of New Mexico:

     Kettles can consist of thousands of birds migrating together.

9. (rail transport, slang) A steam locomotive.
10. (music) A kettledrum.
11. An instance of kettling; a group of protesters or rioters confined in a limited area.
12. (slang) A watch (timepiece).
13. A bucket for holding a quantity of paint during the painting process.
15. (military) A type of encirclement.

    Near-synonym: cauldron

17. (figurative) Ellipsis of kettle of fish.

    Near-synonyms: cauldron, pickle; see also Thesaurus:difficult situation

    Well, we're really in a kettle now, aren't we?

In most varieties of English outside the United States (UK, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian), if not specified otherwise, kettle usually refers to a vessel or appliance used to boil water.

• (difficult situation): out of the frying pan, into the fire

kettle (third-person singular simple present kettles, present participle kettling, simple past and past participle kettled)

1. (originally British, of the police) To contain demonstrators in a confined area.
   • 2009 April 2, John O'Connor, “G20: The upside of kettling: The Guardian”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     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.

   • 2011 October 12, Gregory Djerejian, “This Ain't No Tea Party: A Conservative Defense of Occupy Wall Street”, in The Atlantic‎^[3]:

     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. (intransitive) Of a boiler: to make a whistling sound like the boiling of a kettle, indicative of various types of fault.

• kettle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kettle (birds) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

kettle (plural kettles)

1. Alternative form of kiddle (“kind of fishweir”).

• ketıl

Unadapted borrowing from English kettle.

• IPA^(key): /ˈce.tɯɫ/

kettle (definite accusative kettleı, plural kettlelar)

1. kettle (vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food)

   Synonyms: kazan, ketıl, su ısıtıcısı, su kaynatıcısı