Word of the Day: Ladle

ladle

la-dle / lād-l

noun

1. a cup-shaped spoon with a long handle, used to serve or move liquids

No man can perfectly empty a pot with a ladle.

South African Proverb

2. a bucket-like container used to transfer molten metal

A shout was heard, and a tall crane swung a gigantic ladle under the converting vessel, which then mysteriously upended, exploding like a cannon a prodigious discharge of star-like pieces of whit-hot slag.

McClure’s Magazine, 1893

verb

1. to scoop or serve (a liquid) using a long-handled spoon 

As he could not lift the whole pailful of water at once, he fetched a milk jug, and ladled quarts of water into the pail by degrees.

From “The Tale of Mr. Tod” by Beatrix Potter, 1866 – 1943