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Glite Dictionary
🚢 A steam ship 🥘 A cooking pot 🦪 An edible clam
steamer

steamer

8 2.7
A container used to cook food with steam, like a bamboo basket
  • noun
  • /ˈstiːmər/
translation icon : vaporera
  • A chicken breast may take two or three times longer to cook in the oven than in the steamer, but not a thousand times longer.

Buy a single use egg steamer.

Examples

  • Nansa Doumbia carefully pokes holes in the bottom of a vessel destined to become a couscous steamer.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Light-duty hoods are used for processes involving ovens, steamers, and small kettles.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Pop in a steamer and steam for about five minutes.

    Blog text (1)

  • The one thing with this is because it is a smaller, more compact steamer, the water thing is very small.

  • Cheese into the steamer on the top section or next to the burger if you want.

  • So I went for the Black and Decker steamer and let me show you, you can be the judge.

  • Can I get you anything?" She shook her head, and Noah went to the kitchen and put the crabs in the steamer and the bread in the oven.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Her luggage: She pulls out a compact clothes steamer/travel iron and a Braun blow dryer.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Place the corn in a vegetable steamer and steam until just done but still firm.

  • Fill a large pot with 1 inch of water and set the steamer basket in the pot.

Synonyms

rice steamer
vssteamer
1.7

An electric appliance that cooks rice by steaming or boiling

is a general vessel for steaming many foods rather than an electric appliance

Compounds

tramp steamer
  • Archaic
1 8.6

A cargo ship that sails without a fixed route, carrying goods when available

Stanley Steamer
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A car that runs on steam made in the early 1900s

paddle steamer
  • Archaic
1 6.6

A boat that uses a steam engine and large paddle wheels to move

feed steamer
  • Archaic
9.9

A machine that uses steam to soften and warm animal feed before giving it to animals

rice steamer
1.7

An electric appliance that cooks rice by steaming or boiling

steamer clam
  • US
4.4

A soft clam often steamed and eaten in its shell

How Automatic

rice cooker
3 1.4
steamer
8 2.7

Surface Forms

steamer singular
steamers plural

Morphology

steamer = steam (transparent) = steam + er

The meaning follows directly from steam + -er as a thing used for steaming food.

Etymology

Steamer for a cooking vessel comes from steam meaning 'hot vapor' and the ending -er meaning 'something that'. So a steamer is a pot or basket used to cook food with steam.