ladle

From Middle English ladel, from Old English hlædel, derived from Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną (“to load”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to put, lay out”), same source as Lithuanian kloti (“to spread”), ^[1][2] equivalent to lade +‎ -le (“agent suffix”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪ.dəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdəl

ladle (plural ladles)

2. A deep-bowled spoonlike utensil with a long, usually curved, handle.

   Synonym: dipper

   Coordinate term: serving spoon

   • 1680, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chemical Principles:

     When the materials of glass have been kept long in fusion, the mixture casts up the superfluous salt, which the workmen afterwards take off with ladles.

4. (metallurgy) A container used in a foundry or steel mill to transport and pour out molten metal.
5. The float or paddle on a mill wheel.

   Synonym: ladle board

6. An instrument for drawing the charge of a cannon.
   • 1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, The Dark Frigate, Chapter 6:

     The great guns ranged along the deck — each bound fast by its new breechings — with their linstocks and sponges and ladles and rammers, made no idle show of warlike strength.

7. A ring, with a handle or handles fitted to it, for carrying shot.

• → Welsh: ladl

ladle (third-person singular simple present ladles, present participle ladling, simple past and past participle ladled)

2. (transitive) To pour or serve something with a ladle.

   One worker ladled molten steel into the shot sleeve.

   The host ladled the soup into her guests' bowls.

• Adell, Della