Google Translate's English version of the 'Teekessel' article referenced by JackyB. The examples used make more sense, knowing the original German words they've selected.
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Article:
Teapot, also called tea kettle, is a game in which a word with multiple meanings, i.e. a homonym or a polyseme, must be guessed based on the definition of the meanings.
Origin:
The currently known earliest mention and description of this game can be found in The Book of a Hundred Games by Mary White (1896), p. 117, under the English name Teapot.
Rules
Normally only nouns are used, but often no proper names or foreign language terms. Accordingly, Henkel (for the washing powder manufacturer and as part of the cup) or surfen (on the Internet and on the surfboard) would not be allowed.
Usually several of the players secretly agree on such a term, with each taking on one of the meanings. Then individual statements are made one after the other about the respective meanings, whereby the term to be guessed is always replaced by the word tea kettle. The other players have to guess the term from the statements.
Examples:
"My tea kettle can light up." - "You can eat my tea kettle." Solution: The pear (die Birne) as a lamp (bulb) and as fruit (die Birne).
"You can sit on my tea kettle." - "You can change money on my tea kettle." Solution: The bank (die Bank) as furniture (bench) and also as a credit institution (die Bank).
Two teams often compete against each other, with the one that needs the fewest clues overall winning. A common variant is that the term is chosen by the team to which the guessers do not belong, and then as many players on the guessing team are told the term as it has meanings - these "insiders" then have to describe the term so cleverly that their own team can guess it with as few clues as possible.
Scoring
If two teams play against each other, the fewer explanations a team needs to guess, the more points they get. The type of explanation can be specified, such as describing the color first, then the shape, etc. If no teams are formed, everyone except the game leader can guess, and whoever guesses the word first gets a point and takes over the game leader for the next round.
