(in cooking) a receptacle containing hot or boiling water into which other containers are placed to warm or cook the food in them.
2.
British. a double boiler.
Origin: 1815–25; < F, MF, trans. of ML balneum Mariae lit., bath of Mary, reputed to be a Jewish alchemist who devised such a heating technique, and sometimes identified with Moses' sister Miriam
[beyn-muh-ree; Fr. ban-ma-ree] 
