kettle

noun

1. a metal container in which to boil liquids, cook foods, etc.; pot.
2. a teakettle.
3. a kettledrum.
4. Geology. kettle hole.

noun

1. a metal or plastic container with a handle and spout for boiling water
2. any of various metal containers for heating liquids, cooking fish, etc
3. a large metal vessel designed to withstand high temperatures, used in various industrial processes such as refining and brewing
4. British informal an enclosed space formed by a police cordon in order to contain people involved in a public demonstration
5. short for kettle hole

verb

6. (tr) British informal (of a police force) to contain (people involved in a public demonstration) in an enclosed space

n.

Old English cetil (Mercian), from Latin catillus “deep pan or dish for cooking,” diminutive of catinus “bowl, dish, pot.” A general Germanic borrowing (cf. Old Saxon ketel, Old Frisian zetel, Middle Dutch ketel, Old High German kezzil, German Kessel). Spelling with a -k- (c.1300) probably is from influence of Old Norse cognate ketill. The smaller sense of “tea-kettle” is attested by 1769.

1. A steep, bowl-shaped hollow in ground once covered by a glacier. Kettles are believed to form when a block of ice left by a glacier becomes covered by sediments and later melts, leaving a hollow. They are usually tens of meters deep and up to tens of kilometers in diameter and often contain surface water.

In addition to the idiom beginning with kettle

• kettle of fish

also see:

• pot calling the kettle black