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kettle

Pronunciation: /ˈkɛt(ə)l/

Translate kettle | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of kettle

noun

  • 1a metal or plastic container with a lid, spout, and handle, used for boiling water. See also fish kettle.
  • 2a bowl- or saucer-shaped container in which operations are carried out on metals or other substances with a low melting point.
  • 3chiefly British a small area in which demonstrators or protesters are confined by police seeking to maintain order during a demonstration:activists in the kettle were protesting at being held and resisting arrest

verb

[with object] chiefly British
  • (of the police) confine (a group of demonstrators or protesters) to a small area, as a method of crowd control during a demonstration:the plan was to get as close to the protest as possible without getting kettled (as noun kettling)police were criticized for their use of controversial tactics such as kettling

Phrases

a different kettle of fish

informal a completely different type of person or thing from the one previously mentioned:he’s certainly a different kettle of fish from old Rowell

the pot calling the kettle black

see pot1.

a pretty (or fine) kettle of fish

informal an awkward state of affairs: when Carla was back in Rome, she found a pretty kettle of fish

Derivatives

kettleful

noun (plural kettlefuls)

Origin:

Old English cetel, cietel, of Germanic origin, based on Latin catillus, diminutive of catinus 'deep container for cooking or serving food'. In Middle English the word's form was influenced by Old Norse ketill

kettle in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of kettle in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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