19th C.: When cold, sprinkle the custard thickly with sugar and salamander it. — a 19th century crème brûlée recipe quoted in Richard Daunton-Fear and Penelope Vigar, Australian Colonial Cookery, Rigby, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0187-6, page 41.
A salamander is an animal that looks rather like a lizard, and that can live both on land and in water. Any member of about 400 species in 10 amphibian families (order Caudata), commonly found in fresh water and damp woodlands, principally in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Salamanders are generally nocturnal, short-bodied, 4-6 in. (10-15 cm) long, and brightly coloured. They have a tail, two pairs of limbs of roughly the same size, moist, smooth skin, teeth on the jaws and roof of the mouth, and, usually, internal fertilization. The largest species, the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), is 5 ft (1.5 m) long. Salamanders eat insects, worms, snails, and other small animals, including members of their own species. See also hellbender; newt
A large block of slag, fuel, and metal that solidifies in a furnace causing a blockage The term "salamander" is dervied from the ancient term for a dragon The salamanders often resembled the skull of some mythical monster
Any of the nocturnal amphibians of the Order Caudata Represented in the BWCA by six species in four genera of three families, the Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus), Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus, a Lungless Salamander, Plethodontidæ), and four Mole Salamanders (Ambystomatidæ), the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), Eastern Tiger (Ambystoma tigrinum), Blue Spotted (Ambystoma laterale), and Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)
any of various typically terrestrial amphibians that resemble lizards and that return to water only to breed reptilian creature supposed to live in fire
A portable source of heat in a building under construction, customarily kerosene or oil-burning, used to temporarily heat an enclosure; often used around newly placed concrete to prevent freezing
Any one of numerous species of Urodela, belonging to Salamandra, Amblystoma, Plethodon, and various allied genera, especially those that are more or less terrestrial in their habits