Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A metal stand with short feet, used under a hot dish on a table.
  • noun A three-legged stand made of metal, used for supporting cooking vessels in a hearth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A knife for cutting the loops of terry fabrics, such as velvets or Wilton carpets, in which the looped warp is formed over wires in the shed.
  • noun A three-footed stool or stand; a tripod; especially, an iron tripod on which to place cooking-vessels or anything which is to be kept hot by the fire.
  • noun In heraldry, a bearing representing the three-legged iron support used in cooking.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A tree-legged stool, table, or other support; especially, a stand to hold a kettle or similar vessel near the fire; a tripod.
  • noun A weaver's knife. See Trevat.
  • noun a table supported by three legs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a stand with three short legs, especially for cooking over a fire
  • noun a stand, sometimes with short, stumpy feet, used to support hot dishes and protect a table; a hot coaster

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stand with short feet used under a hot dish on a table
  • noun a three-legged metal stand for supporting a cooking vessel in a hearth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English trevet, stand for cooking vessels, from Old English trefet, probably alteration (influenced by Old English thrifēte, three-footed) of Latin tripēs, triped- : tri-, tri- + pēs, foot; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English trefet, from Latin tripes, ‘tripod’.

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Examples

  • A trivet is a three-legged stand, able to remain steady on any surface where a four-legged one would wobble.

    Weatherwatch: right as rain 2011

  • Depicted on the trivet is a painting of DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Pinkoski then sang

    The Daily Times News Headlines 2010

  • As I mentioned in our prepared remarks around the dividend discussion we do have a fair amount of liquidity what I would call trivet (ph) on our balance sheet based on the mark-to-market adjustments and we now have access to a pretty sizeable amount of new capital through the Wachovia transactions.

    Financial Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha 2009

  • As I mentioned in our prepared remarks around the dividend discussion we do have a fair amount of liquidity what I would call trivet (ph) on our balance sheet based on the mark-to-market adjustments and we now have access to a pretty sizeable amount of new capital through the Wachovia transactions.

    Financial Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha 2009

  • The teakettle was brought in at breakfast, water was boiled by being set on a "trivet," over some coals of fire.

    The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation 1905

  • The teakettle was brought in at breakfast, water was boiled by being set on a "trivet," over some coals of fire.

    The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation Carry Amelia Nation 1878

  • On "trivet", its original use (according to the OED) was for a tripod used to raise pots above fires.

    Wired Campus 2010

  • For me, a "trivet" has feet of some sort, raising the item above the level of the table.

    Wired Campus 2010

  • For me, a "trivet" has feet of some sort, raising the item above the level of the table.

    Wired Campus 2010

  • According to American dictionaries, "trivet" is the standard word for an insulating ceramic or metal slab.

    Wired Campus 2010

Comments

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  • A small iron stand on which to place a hot teapot or other receptacle.

    June 13, 2007

  • Julie Andrews's memoir is full of crisp locutions like "poor unfortunate" and "banished to the scullery" and "trivet," a characteristically precise term that the dictionary defines as "an iron tripod placed over a fire for a cooking pot or kettle to stand on." — »

    March 29, 2008

  • What do you call a trivet without legs? Ok, sounds like a bad joke but my family referred to anything you put under a hot dish or pan or pot (that is, anything bigger than a coaster) as a trivet. Looking at the pictures, where there are various woven pads and ceramic tiles, it seems to be a common usage.

    What should we properly call a legless trivet?

    March 30, 2010

  • *waits for punchline*

    March 30, 2010

  • The woven pads are called potholders.

    March 31, 2010

  • I've also heard heatpad.

    March 31, 2010

  • *rubbing her burning ears*

    If you haven't properly been introduced, "sir" or "ma'am" is usually a safe bet.

    March 31, 2010

  • A heatpad is something you apply to some part of your body to alleviate pain. The potholder-trivet distinction is an important one because, while the expression right as a trivet is a good and sensible simile, right as a potholder is just plain silly. As silly as a one-legged chafing dish in a thunderstorm.

    March 31, 2010

  • Nooo, I only remember heatpad because I saw it written on a sign in a shop display recently. For heatpad/potholder underthingies.

    To me a trivet should definitely have legs ... circulation of air under the cooking vessel is part of the cooling process, yes?

    March 31, 2010

  • Trivet! Sorry about your burning ears, but good to see you here! Also: Hahaha! :-)

    April 2, 2010

  • I'm rather scarce these days, but I drift by ever once and a while...

    April 5, 2010

  • Well, it's always a pleasure. Hope you can drift by more often. :-)

    April 5, 2010

  • We always called the ceramic tiles (with cork on the bottom, usually) trivets, too.

    May 10, 2011

  • Trivets were also used (once upon a time) to hold irons that had to be heated on a cookstove.

    January 26, 2016