Definitions

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

  • noun One that steams.
  • noun A steamship.
  • noun A vehicle, machine, or engine driven by steam.
  • noun A container in which something is steamed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who or that which steams, in any sense.

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

  • noun A vessel propelled by steam; a steamship or steamboat.
  • noun A steam fire engine. See under Steam.
  • noun A road locomotive for use on common roads, as in agricultural operations.
  • noun A vessel in which articles are subjected to the action of steam, as in washing, in cookery, and in various processes of manufacture.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The steamer duck.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a sea duck (Tachyeres cinereus), native of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego, which swims and dives with great agility, but which, when full grown, is incapable of flight, owing to its very small wings. Called also loggerhead, race horse, and side-wheel duck.

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

  • noun cooking A cooking appliance that cooks by steaming.
  • noun A vessel in which articles are subjected to the action of steam, as in washing, and in various processes of manufacture.
  • noun A vessel propelled by steam; a steamship or steamboat.
  • noun A steam-powered road locomotive; a traction engine.
  • noun A wetsuit which has long sleeves and long legs.
  • noun A dish of steamed clams.
  • noun Any species of the duck genus Tachyeres, of which all four species occur in South America, and three are flightless.
  • noun Australia, food, obsolete A food made by cooking diced meat very slowly in a tightly sealed pot, with a minimum of flavourings, allowing it to steam in its own juices; popular circa 1850 but apparently no longer so by the 1900s.
  • noun obsolete A steam fire engine, a fire engine consisting of a steam boiler and engine, and pump which is driven by the engine, combined and mounted on wheels (Webster 1913).
  • noun horse racing A horse whose odds are decreasing (becoming shorter) because bettors are backing it.

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

  • noun a cooking utensil that can be used to cook food by steaming it
  • verb travel by means of steam power
  • noun a ship powered by one or more steam engines
  • noun a clam that is usually steamed in the shell
  • noun an edible clam with thin oval-shaped shell found in coastal regions of the United States and Europe

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From steam +‎ -er.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word steamer.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A Steamer is a flavored milk beverage available in some coffeehouses and cafes in North America. A steamer consists of steamed milk and a shot of flavor syrup. The result is a hot, flavored non-coffee beverage.

    February 5, 2008

  • A duck, a clam, or a wetsuit. You pick.

    September 23, 2011

  • I'll have the clam, please.

    September 23, 2011