kettle

A container or electric appliance used to boil water, especially for making tea or coffee.

• Fill the kettle with water.
• I boiled the kettle to make tea.
• Has the kettle switched itself off?

Similar words: teakettle

Common phrases: electric kettle, boil the kettle, fill the kettle

A large pot, usually made of metal and with a lid, for boiling liquids or cooking food.

• The soup bubbled in the kettle.
• He cooked beans in a large iron kettle.
• They lifted the heavy kettle off the fire.

Similar words: pot, cauldron

Common phrases: soup kettle, iron kettle, kettle of soup

A hollow in the ground, often left when buried ice melts.

• Water collected in the kettle.
• A melting block of ice left this kettle.
• Several deep kettles formed across the glacial landscape.

Similar words: kettle hole, pothole

Common phrases: kettle hole, kettle lake, glacial kettle

A group of hawks or similar birds circling together in rising warm air.

• A kettle of hawks circled overhead.
• We watched the kettle rise on warm air.
• Several kettles of migrating raptors passed above the valley.

How to use it: kettle of hawks/raptors (A kettle of hawks rose above the hill.)

Common phrases: kettle of hawks, kettle of raptors, soaring kettle

A steam engine that pulls railway carriages.

• The old kettle pulled into the station.
• Railway fans photographed the kettle beside the platform.
• Two kettles hauled the train up the hill.

Similar words: steam locomotive, steam engine

Common phrases: old kettle, steam kettle, railway kettle

A large drum with a rounded metal body, played with sticks in an orchestra.

• The player struck the kettle.
• Two kettles stood at the back of the orchestra.
• He tuned each kettle before the concert began.

Similar words: kettledrum, timpani

Common phrases: orchestral kettle, strike a kettle, tune a kettle