Forms: 1 cetel, -il, (cit-, cytel), 4 ketil, 4–6 -el, 5 -ill, -yl(l, 5–7 kettell, (6 -yl, -yll), 6 ketell, ke(a)tle, catell, kyttle, (7 kittle), 6– kettle. Also 3–5 chetel, -ill: see CHETEL. [Com. Teut.: OE. cętel (W. Sax. ciętel) = OS. ketel (in comb. ketel-kôp; MDu. and Du. ketel) OHG. keȝȝil (MHG. keȝȝel, G. kessel), ON. ketill, Goth. katils, prob. a. L. catillus, dim. of catīnus a food-vessel (or ad. L. catīnus itself).
WGerm. katil regularly gave (through *cætil, *ceætil, *ceatil) W.Sax. ciętel (with palatal c), whence ME. chetel, found from Kent and E. Anglia to Devonsh. The Mercian and Northumb. form was cętel (palatalization either absent or lost): cf. Mercian *cæf, cæster, *cælc = southern ceaf, ceaster, cealc. Hence northern and general Eng. ketel, kettle. (The k is by some referred to Scandinavian influence.)]
1. A vessel, commonly of metal, for boiling water or other liquids over a fire; a pot or cauldron (cf. camp-, fish-, gipsy-kettle); now esp. a covered metal vessel with a spout, used to boil water for domestic purposes, a TEA-KETTLE.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 168. Caccabum, cetil.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 44. Wermod ʓesodenne on wætere on niwum cytele. Ibid., 87. ʓenim þonne tyn-amberne cetel.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia, IX. 264. Lead, cytel, hlædel.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cvii. 10 [cviii. 8]. Moab ketel of mi hope is.
a. 1350. St. Anastasia, 84, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 26. Pottes and pannes & oþer slyke Als ketils, crassetes, to kechin like.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 273/2. Ketyl, or chetyle, or caudrone, cacabus, lebes.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, A ij. Take for the erthen cappell a copper cappell or kettyll with a copper pype as before is fygured.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 393. She … boils in Kettles Must of Wine.
1740. Pineda, Sp. Dict., Sartèn … We say, The Kettle called the Pot Black-Arse.
1755. Johnson, s.v., In the kitchen the name of pot is given to the boiler that grows narrower towards the top, and of kettle to that which grows wider.
1866. R. M. Ballantyne, Shifting Winds, i. (1881), 1. The family kettle … was singing on the fire.
2. Phrase. A kettle of fish.
a. On the Tweed, etc. A kettle of fish cooked al fresco, at a boating excursion or picnic; hence, applied to the picnic itself. Also simply kettle.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 394. It is customary for the gentlemen who live near the Tweed to entertain their neighbours and friends with a Fete Champetre, which they call giving ‘a kettle of fish.’ Tents or marquees are pitched near the flowery banks of the river … a fire is kindled, and live salmon thrown into boiling kettles.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, I. xii. 293. The whole company go to the water-side to-day to eat a kettle of fish.
1881. A. Carter, in Picturesque Scot., 111. A ‘kettle’ in Berwick parlance is a picnic party with this specialty about it that fish is the chief thing consumed, and this fish is salmon taken out of the river … and cooked upon the spot.
b. Usually with adj. ironically, as pretty, fine, nice, rare († also simply a fine kettle): A mess, muddle, disagreeable or awkward state of things.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 308. He has made a fine Kettle on’t—han’t he!
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, I. xii. ‘Here’s a pretty kettle of fish,’ cries Mrs. Tow-wouse. Ibid. (1749), Tom Jones, XVIII. viii. Fine doings at my house! A rare kettle of fish I have discovered at last.
1800. Wellington, Lett. to Close, 2 Oct., in Gurw., Desp. (1837), I. 245. If so, we shall have a fine kettle of fish at Seringapatam.
1820. Lady Granville, Lett., 7 Oct. (1894), I. 184. Ministers are in a nice kettle of fish, to be sure.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., I. iv. Your training schools, and your whole kettle-of-fish of schools.
3. A kettle of hats: a quantity of hats dyed at the same time in a dye-kettle.
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, I. 184. Upon dying a Kettle of hats of twenty-four dozen.
1900. [Still in use in the trade].
4. transf. a. ‘The brass or metal box of a compass’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867).
b. Sc. Mining. A kind of shallow tub or kibble in which miners descend and ascend the shaft, or in which material is brought to the surface.
1894. Daily News, 9 May, 7/7. Four pit-sinkers were being drawn up a shaft…, when the ‘kettle’ on which they were standing … swung from one side of the shaft to the other and three men fell off.
1894. Labour Commission Gloss., Kettle, a Scotch mining term for the basket or kibble which takes the place of a cage in shafts not provided with ‘guides.’… It is like a half-barrel attached to the winding-rope.
c. A deep circular hollow scoured out in a rocky river bed, or under a glacier, etc.; a pot-hole. Cf. giant’s kettle (GIANT 6), also HELL-KETTLE.
1874. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age (1894), 431. Everyone who has visited the Glacier Garden at Lucerne will remember the fine display of ‘kettles’ seen there.
1893. Northumbld. Gloss., Kettle, a pot-hole or circular hole, scoured out in a rocky river bed by the swirling action of pebbles.
† 5. Short for KETTLEDRUM. Obs.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 286. Let the Kettle to the Trumpets speake, The Trumpet to the Cannoneer without.
6. Comb. a. Gen. combs., as (sense 1) kettle-boiling, -hanger, -hook, -iron, -maker, -prop; (sense 4 c) kettle-formation, -hole, -moraine, -valley. b. Special combs.: kettle-boiler, an old type of steam-boiler, having a rounded top (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); kettle-bread, home-made bread, baked under a ‘kettle’ or pot; kettle-broth (see quot.); kettlecase, a popular name of Orchis mascula; kettledock, a popular name of the Ragwort, Senecio Jacobæa; also applied to the Broad-leaved Dock, Rumex obtusifolius (Britt. & H., Miller, Plant-n.); kettle-faced a., having a face as black as a kettle: † kettle-fats = BATTERY 13; † kettle-fish, small fish; kettle-furnace, (a) a basket-furnace in which lead or solder is melted for plumbing; (b) a furnace for heating a kettle; kettle-holder, a piece of cloth or the like used in lifting a kettle, to protect the hand from the heated handle; transf. a kind of small bonnet; † kettleman, ? = KETTLER; kettle-maw, the angler (fish); † kettle-mill, a device for raising water; kettle-net, a form of net used in fishing for mackerel.
1897. Daily News, 9 Dec., 10/3. When there was a question of cigar-lighting or *kettle-boiling, the electricity gave small promise of comfort.
1882. ‘Edna Lyall,’ Donovan, xx. 239. Donovan sat down with the farmer and his wife to broth and *‘kettle bread.’
1880. Eleanor G. O’Reilly, Sussex Stor., II. 187 (E. D. D.). *‘Kettle-broth’ … consists of pieces of stale bread liberally moistened with boiling water, and besprinkled with salt and pepper.
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, II. i. I’m an honest, black, tauny, *Kettle-fac’d Fellow.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs (1821), 120. Metal prepared; and Battery, which are commonly called *Kettle Fats. This last is known by the dint of the mill-hammers upon the kettles.
1630. in Descr. Thames (1758), 69. That no Peter-man … take any Flounders, or any other short Fish which they have usually called *Kettle-Fish.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 32. A small bit of pork suspended from the *kettle-hanger.
1853. Miss Yonge, Heir of Redclyffe, I. 101. Charlotte worked a *kettle-holder.
1867. Morn. Star, 17 Sept., 5. The small bonnets, which are known as ‘kettle-holders.’
1887. Stevenson, in Scribner’s Mag., I. 612/2. A kettle-holder in Berlin wool.
1889. G. F. Wright, Ice Age N. Amer., 11. A true terminal moraine is made up of knolls and bowl-shaped depressions called *kettle-holes.
1485. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 51. Potte hokes … j, *ketle hokes … ij.
c. 1483. Caxton, Dialogues, 46/37. Ysaac the *ketelmaker Gyveth four ketellis.
1629. in New Romney Par. Reg., Thomas Well, *Kittleman [buried].
a. 1778. Pennant, Journ. fr. Lond. to Isle of Wight (1801), II. 74. The common Angler … from the vast width of its mouth, it is called here the *Kettle-maw.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., 37. The sundry wayes to force water to ascend, eyther by Tympane, *Kettell mills [etc.].
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 49 b. Some pump to be made, or Ketile-Mill, or such like, as may serve the turne of a naturall streame.
1881. Hamersly, Naval Encycl. U. S., *Kettle-net, a net formerly used in catching mackerel.
1881. A. Leslie, trans. Nordenskiöld’s Voy. Vega, II. xv. 291. A high plain … interrupted at many places by deep *kettle valleys.
Hence Kettled a. Geol., worn into kettle-shaped hollows.
1898. Amer. Geologist, Nov., 298. Crevasses and moulins would be formed … producing such a profusely kettled surface as in the Glacier Garden.
