kettle

noun

1. A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.

   “To cook pasta, you first need to put the kettle on.”

   “There's a hot kettle of soup on the stove.”

2. The quantity held by a kettle.
3. A vessel or appliance used to boil water for the preparation of hot beverages and other foodstuffs.

   “Stick the kettle on and we'll have a nice cup of tea.”

4. A kettle hole, sometimes any pothole.
5. (collective)A group of raptors riding a thermal, especially when migrating.

   “a kettle of hawks”

   “Kettles can consist of thousands of birds migrating together.”

6. (slang)A steam locomotive.
7. A kettledrum.
8. An instance of kettling; a group of protesters or rioters confined in a limited area.
9. (slang)A watch (timepiece).
10. A bucket for holding a quantity of paint during the painting process.
11. A type of encirclement.

    “Near-synonym: cauldron”

12. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, figuratively)Ellipsis of kettle of fish.

    “Near-synonyms: cauldron, pickle; see also Thesaurus:difficult situation”

    “Well, we're really in a kettle now, aren't we?”

13. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of kiddle (“kind of fishweir”).

verb

1. To contain demonstrators in a confined area.

   “Life for senior officers has been made much easier by the use of counter-terrorism powers, which enable them to contain demonstrators for hours in a confined spot. This tactic, known as kettling, is seen by some as an attempt to prevent people lawfully demonstrating.”

   “A couple of the initial pepper spray incidents went viral on YouTube, one showing very young women screaming hysterically while penned—or is the term for this ‘kettled’?—by bright orange police mesh.”

2. (intransitive)Of a boiler: to make a whistling sound like the boiling of a kettle, indicative of various types of fault.