🍲 A food warmer 🐞 A beetle

chafer

7.2

A metal container that keeps cooked food warm at buffets

noun
/ˈtʃeɪfər/

Specialized

: chafer

At the breakfast buffet, scrambled eggs were served from a stainless steel chafer.

Examples

She placed the hot dish in a chafer to keep it warm.
The caterers arranged the hot dishes in a chafer to keep them warm throughout the evening.
Please refill the water in the chafer so the food stays at the right temperature.
The buffet was filled with chafers of delicious food.
The caterers arranged the hot dishes in a chafer to keep them warm throughout the evening.
Please refill the water in the chafer so the food stays at the right temperature.
At the breakfast buffet, scrambled eggs were served from a stainless steel chafer.

Synonyms

hot plate

vschafer

15 3.4

A small portable electric cooker with one or two burners for cooking and keeping food warm

keeps cooked food warm in a container used mainly at catered events

chafing dish

vschafer

4 6.4

A metal pan on a small heater used to cook or keep food hot at the table

is used mainly for buffets and catered events rather than at table

hotplate

vschafer

2 3.2

A small electric device that heats, cooks, or keeps food warm

keeps cooked food warm in a container used mainly for buffets

warming pan

vschafer

4.8

A pan used to keep food warm before serving

is used mainly at buffets and catered events rather than only before serving

Compounds

rose chafer

8.8

A small insect that eats the leaves and flowers of roses

Surface Forms

chafer singular

chafers plural

Morphology

chafer = chafe (opaque) = chafe + er

The word is historically based on chafe + -er, but the food-warming vessel sense depends on an archaic meaning of chafe, so modern learners cannot infer it transparently.

Etymology

Chafer comes from the older name chafing dish, where 'chafing' once meant 'to warm', so a chafer is simply a pan used to keep cooked food warm.