Skillet - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

skil·let

Audio Help [skil-it] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	a frying pan.

2.	a cylindrical serving vessel of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, having a hinged lid, a handle, and, sometimes, feet.

3.	Chiefly British. a long-handled saucepan.

[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME; orig. uncert.

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Skillet

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fry·ing pan (frī'ĭng)
n. A shallow, long-handled pan used for frying food. Also called skillet; also called regionally fry pan, spider.

The terms frying pan and skillet are now virtually interchangeable, but there was a time when they were so regional as to be distinct dialect markers. Frying pan and the shortened version fry pan were once New England terms; frying pan is now in general use, as is the less common fry pan, now heard in the Atlantic states, the South, and the West, as well as New England. Skillet seems to have been confined to the Midland section of the country, including the Upper South. Its use is still concentrated there, but it is no longer used in that area alone, probably because of the national marketing of skillet dinner mixes. The term spider, originally denoting a type of frying pan that had long legs to hold it up over the coals, spread from New England westward to the Upper Northern states and down the coast to the South Atlantic states. It is still well known in both these regions, although it is now considered old-fashioned. See Note at andiron.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

skil·let Audio Help (skĭl'ĭt) Pronunciation Key
n.

See frying pan. See Regional Notes at andiron, frying pan.
Chiefly British A long-handled stewing pan or saucepan sometimes having legs.

[Middle English skelet, from Old French escuelete, diminutive of escuele, plate, from Latin scutella, diminutive of scutra, platter.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
skillet

1403, perhaps from M.Fr. esculette (Fr. écuelle), dim. of escuele "plate," from L. scutella "serving platter" (see scuttle (n.)); or formed in Eng. from skele "wooden bucket or pail" (c.1330), from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. skjola "pail, bucket").

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

skillet
noun
a pan used for frying foods [syn: frying pan]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Skillet

Scut"tle\, n. [AS. scutel a dish, platter; cf. Icel. skutill; both fr. L. scutella, dim. of scutra, scuta, a dish or platter; cf. scutum a shield. Cf. Skillet.]

1. A broad, shallow basket.

2. A wide-mouthed vessel for holding coal: a coal hod.

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