Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧥 To dress 🎭 To organize 🚗 To increase mileage ☕ To start heating ⚖️ To gain weight 🎶 To play music ➕ To add 😏 To trick
to put on

to put on

65 1.8
To place food or a kettle on a heat source to cook it
  • phrasal verb
  • /pʊt ɑn/
translation icon : poner a hervir
  • She put on a pot of soup to help warm us on a cold day.

Examples

  • In the kitchen, he put the kettle on to boil.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I just put on a fresh pot.

    Grim (1996)

  • Well, I'll put on a chicken.

    Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

  • So take a little bit of flour and put on the surface.

  • Eva went to the stove and put on the kettle.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Sighing, Eva got up and went to the kitchenette, lit the stove, and put the kettle on.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I put on the kettle to boil some water for tea.

  • Can you put on the coffee pot on the burner while I prepare the mugs?

How Hot

to sear
76 6.1
to boil
269 1.0
simmer
11 3.4
to heat
298 1.0
to put on
65 1.8

Surface Forms

put on infinitive
put on past
put on past participle
putting on present participle
puts on third person singular

Morphology

put + on

The basic sense 'to dress oneself' is directly derivable from combining 'put' (place) with 'on' (onto the body) and would be clear to a B1 learner who knows both words. However, extended senses like 'put on a show' (to stage/present) or idiomatic uses (e.g. 'put on' meaning to pretend) involve metaphorical extension and phrasal-verb idiosyncrasy that are not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

The phrasal verb put on meaning to start cooking comes from placing a kettle or pot onto the heat. You put the kettle on the stove so the water heats, so it means 'to begin cooking' or 'to heat' something.