teapot

teapot — noun

1. a container for steeping and serving tea, fitted with a handle, a lid, and a spo

1.nounA1
Definition

a container for steeping and serving tea, fitted with a handle, a lid, and a spout for pouring

Example

Hoa poured hot water into the teapot and let the tea steep for three minutes.

collocation: pour hot water into the teapot

The old ceramic teapot on the top shelf has a small crack in its lid.

adjective + teapot: ceramic teapot

Common collocations
  • ceramic teapot
  • porcelain teapot
  • clay teapot
  • silver teapot
  • teapot lid
  • teapot spout
Synonyms
  • kettle

    a kettle is used to boil water, not to brew or serve tea; you pour hot water from a kettle into a teapot

  • pot

    informal shorthand in phrases like 'make a pot of tea', but 'pot' alone usually means a cooking container

Grammar Patterns

a [teapot]

the [teapot]

[adjective] + teapot

in/into/from a teapot

Idioms

A situation where people get very upset about something that is not really important.

The argument over the office coffee machine was a tempest in a teapot.

Did the media make the scandal a tempest in a teapot?

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A teapot is designed for steeping and serving tea, with a spout for pouring and a lid to keep heat in. A kettle is used only to boil water — you pour the hot water from the kettle into the teapot, not directly into cups. A tea infuser is a small perforated container that holds loose tea leaves inside a cup or pot; it is much smaller than a teapot. In casual speech, 'pot' can refer to a teapot ('make a pot of tea'), but outside the tea context, 'pot' means a general cooking vessel.

Common collocations

Nouns

  • teapot lid
  • teapot spout
  • teapot stand
  • ceramic teapot
  • porcelain teapot
  • clay teapot

Phrases

  • a pot of tea
  • make tea in a teapot
  • pour from a teapot
  • teapot keeps tea warm

Prepositions

  • in a teapot
  • into a teapot
  • from a teapot
  • out of a teapot

Etymology

Chinese (Min Nan)DutchEnglish

The word 'teapot' is a compound of 'tea' (from Min Nan Chinese 'tê', via Dutch 'thee', entering English in the mid-1600s) and 'pot' (from Old English 'pott', related to Latin 'potus' meaning a drinking vessel). The word appeared around the 1610s–1620s, as tea drinking became fashionable in England and a dedicated vessel was needed for brewing and serving it.