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A cauldron is a large, round, deep metal pot for boiling liquid over a fire. In fairy stories a witch stirs a cauldron; in real old kitchens people used one to cook soup or stew for a whole family or a whole camp. The word feels a bit old and story-like — today most of us just say pot. Though actually, history writers also use cauldron for a place where soldiers are trapped and closed in from all sides, as if they were being cooked in a pot. That army sense was borrowed from German; it is not about cooking, and you will meet it in war books more than in recipes.
大鍋、大釜（童話裡女巫用的那種；戰史裡也可指被包圍的「鍋形」戰場）
組成From Middle English caudroun, borrowed from Old Northern French caudron, going back to Late Latin caldāria, "cooking-pot", from Latin caldus, "hot". Later writers put an l into the spelling to make it look more Latin. It is not kettle plus something — even if the two pots look alike.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
cauldronnoun/ˈkɔːl.dɹən/
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A large bowl-shaped pot used for boiling over an open flame.
- Double, double, toile and trouble; / Fire burne, and Cauldron bubble.
- […] I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses … […]
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governmentmilitarypoliticsA type of encirclement.
- Near-synonym: kettle
- After having defended the constantly shrinking perimeter of their position for over two weeks, the encircled German units in the Cherkassy “cauldron” were ordered to break out.
- 3
An unsettled or difficult situation or place.
- Near-synonyms: kettle, pickle; see also Thesaurus:difficult situation
- a cauldron of discontent
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。