Noun

(en noun)

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.

The quantity held by a kettle.

(British) A vessel for boiling water for tea; a teakettle.

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

(geology) A kettle hole, sometimes any pothole.

(Raptors) (ornithology) A collective term for a group of raptors riding a thermal, especially when migrating.

* 2006 , Keith L. Bildstein, Migrating Raptors of the World: Their Ecology & Conservation - Page 76 :

The term kettle refers to a group of raptors wheeling or circling in a thermal.

* 2010 , Jean-Luc E. Cartron, Raptors of New Mexico :

Kettles can consist of thousands of birds migrating together.

(rail transport, slang) A steam locomotive

(musical instruments) A kettledrum.

Noun

(usually used as plural)

Domesticated bovine animals (cows, bulls, steers etc).

Do you want to raise cattle ?

Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or horses.

*

*

(pejorative, figuratively) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.

* {{quote-book, 1961, Gerald Hanley, The Journey Homeward, page=155 citation

, passage="I always knew it, but I always denied it, because I'm one of them, and I'm like them." ¶"We're just cattle ," the Prison Governor said, relieved now.}}

chattel

goods and cattle

* {{quote-book, 1552, Parliament of England, An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer, and Service in the Church, and Administration of the Sacraments citation

, passage=That then every person so offending and convict, shall for his third offence, forfeit to our Sovereign Lady the Queen, all his goods and cattles , and shall suffer imprisonment during his life.}}

* {{quote-book, 1684, , Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England, year_published=1856

, passage=1684 July. Mistris Dorothy Gray, Adminnestratrix of the Goods and Cattles of Mr Edward Gray, late of Plymouth, deceased,

(uncountable, rare)

* , The Squatting Age in Australia, 1835–1847 , Melbourne University Press (1964), page 315:

The temptation of a lone white man was too great for any gathering of myall -natives, and sheep-fat and cattle -steak seemed there for the spearing, so that a stockman always ran the risk of attack, especially if his shepherds interfered with the native women.

* Barry Hannah, “Eating Wife and Friends”, in Airships , Grove Press (1994), ISBN 978-0-8021-3388-5, page 137:

“But you cooked a human being and ate him,” say I.

“I couldn’t help it,” says she. “I remember the cattle steaks of the old days, the juicy pork, the dripping joints of lamb, the venison.”

* 1996 April 3, Emmett Jordan, " Re: AR activist arrested for spreading 'Mad Cow' disease in US", in rec.food.veg, Usenet :

Believe it or not Big Mac is one of the ultra radicals who provide fast food cattle burgers to interstate vehicles who drive all over the place providing scraps for rats, cats, flies, etc, so that the Mad Cow Disease might spread even faster than it would otherwise do.

* 2005 June 25, "Serge" (username), " Re: WOW!!!! WHALE BURGERS...... McDonalds Don't You Get Any Ideas", in aus.politics and other newsgroups, Usenet :

If a particular whale species isn't endangered, then there's not a blind bit of difference between butchering them or cattle.

Whale burgers. Cattle burgers......no difference!