Forms: 3 caudroun, 4 cauderoun, cawdroun, caudren, (gaudroun), 4–5 cawdrone, -run, 4–7 caudron, 5 cawdren, -derowne, -durne, -tron, caudryn, calderon, 5–6 caldrone, 5–7 cawdron, 6 caud-, cauld-, cautherne, 5– caldron, 6– cauldron. See also CHALDRON. [ME. caud(e)ron, -oun, a. AF. and ONF. caud(e)ron, -oun, corresp. to central OF. chaud(e)ron, Sp. calderon, It. calderone, augmentative of *caldariō, *calderio:—L. caldārium hot-bath, of which the pl. caldāria exists in It. caldaja, Pg. caldeira, Sp. caldera, Pr. caudiera, NF. caudiere, F. chaudière kettle. The l is a later insertion of the Renascence, in imitation of Latin, which has gradually been recognised in pronunciation: Sc. has still caudron, cauðron. The spelling cauldron decidedly preponderates in modern use, though the dictionaries from Johnson downward have favored caldron.]
1. A large kettle or boiler.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 158. Hi … soden hem fisch in a caudroun.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2460. A gret boiland cauderoun.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xiii. 3. What shal comune the caudron to the pot?
1387. E. E. Wills (1882), 2. Þe gaudroun in þe kechyn.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxviii. (1495), 933. A caudren is a vessel of kechen.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 662. Hoc caldarium, caldron.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 433. Sethe it in a pot … or in a cawdron.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 381 (Add. MS.). A Cawderowne full of wellyng piche and brymstone.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. ii. 14. The Cauldron, or ketell, or panne, or pot.
1556. Inv., in French, Shaks. Geneal. (1869), 471. In the kitchen … ij. cathernes.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 30. Thys yere [1521] was a man soddyne in a cautherne in Smythfelde … because he wold a poyssynd dyvers persons.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 11. Double, double, toile and trouble, Fire burne, and Cauldron bubble.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xii. (1632), 686. Fiue hundred Cawdrons made of beasts skins.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 280. Some steep their Seed, and some in Cauldrons boil.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XV. 151. These will the caldron, these the tripod give.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. 289. For the poisoners of the soul there was the stake, for the poisoners of the body, the boiling cauldron.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, I. vi. 100. A great caldron, under which a fire is burning.
fig. 1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xvi. 206. Whatever the chance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 193. When the great caldron of war is seething.
2. transf. A natural formation suggesting a cauldron, in shape, or by the agitation of a contained fluid.
[1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, III. x. (1483), 56. This is cleped the Caudron and the pytte of helle.].
a. 1763. Shenstone, Wks. (1764), I. 23. VESUVIO’s horrid cauldrons roar.
1787. Burns, Fall of Fyers. Still thro’ the gap the struggling river toils, And still, below, the horrid caldron boils.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xvii. (1852), 375. Deluges of black naked lava, which have flowed … over the rims of the great caldrons.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 9. The cauldron of the sea.
