kiln

[kil, kiln]

noun

1. a furnace or oven for burning, baking, or drying something, especially one for firing pottery, calcining limestone, or baking bricks.

verb (used with object)

1. to burn, bake, or treat in a kiln.

kiln

/ kɪln /

noun

1. a large oven for burning, drying, or processing something, such as porcelain or bricks

verb

1. (tr) to fire or process in a kiln

Other Word Forms

• unkilned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of kiln¹

before 900; Middle English kiln ( e ), Old English cylen < Latin culīna kitchen

Word History and Origins

Origin of kiln¹

Old English cylen, from Late Latin culīna kitchen, from Latin coquere to _cook

Example Sentences

To tell a story, writes Mr. Johnson, is to “fire it in the kiln of real life, resulting not in a fabrication, but a reality hard enough, sharp enough, to draw blood.”

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The handprint found underneath was probably made when someone, perhaps the potter, moved the house out of the workshop to dry before firing in a kiln, according to the researchers.

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And it’s true that Anne, currently addicted to playing some farm game on her iPad and not using the potting shed, complete with kiln, that Nick built her, has let joy leak from her life.

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The tiles had been fired once, a hundred years ago, in kilns that reached 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, Nonato said.

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It was during that time that she invested in an electric kiln, built a slab where the kiln now sits and enclosed it in a shed.

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Related Words

• furnace 
• stove