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chafing dish

chafing dish

4 6.4
A metal pan on a small heater used to cook or keep food hot at the table
  • noun
  • /ˈtʃeɪfɪŋ dɪʃ/
translation icon : plato de calentamiento
  • We overordered and had several chafing dishes full of food from a local restaurant that hadn't been opened—called a couple of shelters hoping someone would want it, and no one could take it.
  • a silver chafing dish
  • chafing dishes on the table

Examples

  • "The Abbe arranged a chafing dish filled with oil-soaked coals.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • If you are renting dishes, you can also look into chafing dishes, tables, and chairs if you think you will have a large affair.

    Blog text (22)
  • I came to get my chafing dish.

  • What is a chafing dish for?

  • The chafing dish is not yours.

  • There was food in chafing dishes tended by a cocoa-colored man in a white jacket whom Peter seemed to know.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • A chafing dish...

  • I have also been watching for the fancy "chafing dishes" at thrift stores - the ones with the candles underneath to keep the food warm.

    Blog text (22)
  • She slipped on a pair of oven mitts and lifted one of the chafing dishes filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • At the buffet, the staff placed various dishes in the chafing dish to keep the food warm for guests.

Synonyms

chafer
vschafing dish
  • Specialized
7.2

A metal container that keeps cooked food warm at buffets

is heated from below to cook or warm food at the table

How Warm

saucepan
34 1.0
chafing dish
4 6.4
bain-marie
  • Specialized
8.6
argyll
  • Archaic
3 9.9
gravy boat
4 2.0

Surface Forms

chafing dish singular

Morphology

chafing + dish

A B1 learner who knows 'chafing' as skin soreness from rubbing and 'dish' as a plate-like vessel would not infer a heated serving pan from those meanings; the literal constituents give no cue to the device's function. The sense of 'chafing' that relates to heating is historical/archaic and specialized, so the MWE is idiomatic and unpredictable to typical learners.

Etymology

Chafing dish comes from an old word meaning 'to heat' and the simple word dish. Picture a metal dish sitting over a small flame or tiny heater to keep food hot at a buffet, so it means 'a pan used to keep food warm at the table'.