BOILER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does boiler mean? 

• BOILER (noun)
  The noun BOILER has 2 senses:

1. sealed vessel where water is converted to steam

2. a metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid

  Familiarity information: BOILER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOILER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sealed vessel where water is converted to steam

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

boiler; steam boiler

Hypernyms ("boiler" is a kind of...):

vessel (an object used as a container (especially for liquids))

Meronyms (parts of "boiler"):

steam whistle (a whistle in which the sound is produced by steam; usually attached to a steam boiler)

Meronyms (members of "boiler"):

boilerplate (thick plate iron used in the production of boilers)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boiler"):

auxiliary boiler; donkey boiler ((nautical) an extra boiler (as a ship's boiler that is used while the ship is in port))

Holonyms ("boiler" is a part of...):

heat; heating; heating plant; heating system (utility to warm a building)

steam engine (external-combustion engine in which heat is used to raise steam which either turns a turbine or forces a piston to move up and down in a cylinder)

Derivation:

boil (bring to, or maintain at, the boiling point)

boil (come to the boiling point and change from a liquid to vapor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

boiler; kettle

Hypernyms ("boiler" is a kind of...):

pot (metal or earthenware cooking vessel that is usually round and deep; often has a handle and lid)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boiler"):

teakettle (kettle for boiling water to make tea)

Derivation:

boil (immerse or be immersed in a boiling liquid, often for cooking purposes)

 Context examples 

Fortunately, the kitchen and boiler fires were still alive, and there was no lack of hot water.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I am therefore willing to believe that she was in a fit when we found her under the boiler; and that the deficient tea-spoons were attributable to the dustman.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now a bag of remarkable clothespins, next, a wonderful nutmeg grater which fell to pieces at the first trial, a knife cleaner that spoiled all the knives, or a sweeper that picked the nap neatly off the carpet and left the dirt, labor-saving soap that took the skin off one's hands, infallible cements which stuck firmly to nothing but the fingers of the deluded buyer, and every kind of tinware, from a toy savings bank for odd pennies, to a wonderful boiler which would wash articles in its own steam with every prospect of exploding in the process.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

When I had closed the door, and followed, with the umbrella in my hand, I found her sitting on the corner of the fender—it was a low iron one, with two flat bars at top to stand plates upon—in the shadow of the boiler, swaying herself backwards and forwards, and chafing her hands upon her knees like a person in pain.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In another, the ground was cumbered with rusty iron monsters of steam-boilers, wheels, cranks, pipes, furnaces, paddles, anchors, diving-bells, windmill-sails, and I know not what strange objects, accumulated by some speculator, and grovelling in the dust, underneath which—having sunk into the soil of their own weight in wet weather—they had the appearance of vainly trying to hide themselves.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)