stove

/stoʊv/

/stəʊv/

Other forms: stoves

A stove is a machine that heats or cooks. If you want really delicious popcorn, don't use the microwave — cook it the old-fashioned way, in a pot of hot oil on the stove.

Stoves typically use gas or electricity. If you have a wood-burning stove in your house, you know it's an apparatus that burns split logs to create enough heat to warm up a room — or several rooms. In the 15th century, stove meant either "heated room" or "bathroom." Experts aren't sure about the word's origin, although some guess a connection to Vulgar Latin's extufare, "take a steam bath."

Definitions of stove

1. noun

   a kitchen appliance used for cooking food
   “dinner was already on the stove”

   synonyms: cooking stove, kitchen range, kitchen stove, range

   types:

   charcoal burner

   a stove that burns charcoal as fuel

   cookstove

   a stove for cooking (especially a wood- or coal-burning kitchen stove)

   electric range

   a kitchen range in which the heat for cooking is provided by electric power

   gas cooker, gas range, gas stove

   a range with gas rings and an oven for cooking with gas

   potbelly, potbelly stove

   a bulbous stove in which wood or coal is burned

   Primus, Primus stove

   a portable paraffin cooking stove; used by campers

   spirit stove

   a stove that burns a volatile liquid fuel such as alcohol

   type of:

   kitchen appliance

   a home appliance used in preparing food
2. noun

   any heating apparatus
   type of:

   heater, warmer

   device that heats water or supplies warmth to a room