Kettle Definition

kĕtl
kettles
noun
kettles
A metal container for boiling or cooking things; pot.
Webster's New World
A teakettle.
Webster's New World
A kettledrum.
Webster's New World
A depression in glacial drift remaining after the melting of an isolated mass of buried ice.
Webster's New World
A pothole.
American Heritage
verb

(UK, of the police) To contain demonstrators in a confined area.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Kettle

Noun

Singular:
kettle
Plural:
kettles

Origin of Kettle

  • From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old Norse ketill and Old English cytel, cetel, citel (“kettle, cauldron”), 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 catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“kettle”), Gothic (katils, “kettle”). Compare also Russian котёл (kotjól, “boiler, cauldron”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English ketel from Old Norse ketill Old English cetel both from Latin catīllus diminutive of catīnus large bowl

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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