† hell-kettlen.
Obsolete.
A deep black gulf or abyss; a name locally applied to holes or pools popularly supposed to be bottomless. Cf. kettle n. 4c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hole or pit > [noun] > abyss
swallowa700
deepnessa1000
deep1393
abysmc1475
dungeonc1475
depth1523
gulfa1533
downfall1542
hell-kettle1577
abysmus1611
vorago1654
under-abyss1662
purgatory1766
fosse1805
jaw-hole1840
1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. ii. xviii. f. 93v/2, in R. Holinshed Chron. I What the foolish people dreame of the hell kettles, it is not worthie the rehersall... Ther are certeine pittes, or rather three little poles, a myle from Darlington,..which ye people call the kettes of hell, or the deuils ketteles.
1634 Relation Short Surv. in W. H. D. Longstaffe Hist. Darlington (1973) 30 The three..deepe pitts called Hell Kettles, we left boyling by Darlington.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 250 An huge Casm, or Hell-Kettle was left where the mountain had emptied its self.
1727 D. Defoe Tour Great Brit. III. ii. 188 As to the Hell Kettles, so much talked up for a Wonder... 'Tis evident, they are nothing but old Coal Pits filled with Water by the River Tees.
1794 G. Heath New Hist. & Descr. of City & Suburbs of Bristol 112 His foot slipping, the twig boke, ahd [sic] he was precipitated into this dreadful hell-kettle.
1849 H. W. Herbert Dermont O'Brien iv. 43 Before he could face the eddy he would be swept over the black boar's back, and plunged into the hell-kettle, down below there!
1999 Independent (Nexis) 15 Sept. 6 He [sc. Lewis Carroll] also knew of a system of holes called ‘Hell's kettles’, which were described by locals as bottomless pits.]
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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