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Glite Dictionary
spirit stove

spirit stove

8.1
A small portable cooker that burns alcohol for cooking and heating
  • noun
  • UK
translation icon : estufa de alcohol
  • The hikers used a spirit stove to boil water at the campsite.

Examples

  • Her old spirit stove was reliable even in windy weather.

  • A compact spirit stove is great for lightweight backpacking trips.

  • I bought a spirit stove for camping trips.

  • The spirit stove is lightweight and easy to carry.

  • The hikers used a spirit stove to boil water at the campsite.

  • Her old spirit stove was reliable even in windy weather.

  • A compact spirit stove is great for lightweight backpacking trips.

Synonyms

spirit lamp
vsspirit stove
  • Specialized
7.0

A small lamp that burns alcohol to heat things in a lab

is designed for portable cooking and general heating rather than laboratory demonstrations

Surface Forms

spirit stove singular
spirit stoves plural

Morphology

spirit + stove

The noun–noun combination is directly compositional: 'spirit' (an alcoholic distillate) + 'stove' (a cooking/heating appliance) yields a stove that burns alcohol as fuel. A B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings and sees the camping context can readily infer this sense; possible secondary senses of 'spirit' (e.g. ghost) are disambiguated by context and by common cross-linguistic equivalents like 'alcohol stove' or 'spirit burner'.

Etymology

Spirit stove comes from the fuel it uses: 'spirit' was an old word for alcohol and the stove burns that liquid. So a spirit stove is a small, portable stove that runs on alcohol for cooking or heating.