A kettle in which water is boiled for making tea.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4063/4. A Tea Kettle, a gilt Tea-Pot.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 397. He that snatches up the copper handle of a tea kettle, and burns his fingers.
1865. Times, 23 Aug. Wiesbaden … is as close and hot in the summer as a steaming tea-kettle.
transf. 1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., iv. (ed. 3), 18. There was a great demand in Australia for small river steamers…. The difficulty, however, was to get such fragile tea-kettles across the ocean.
attrib. 1746. Miles, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 55. The Spirits were such as we use for the Tea-kettle Lamp.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vi. Crimson silk tea-kettle holders.
1896. Peterson Mag., Jan., 63/2. Martha dropped the tea-kettle cover with a bang.
