Vessel placed to hold ice (7)
I believe the answer is:
skillet
'vessel' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'placed to hold ice' is the wordplay.
'placed' becomes 'set' (synonyms).
'to hold' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ice' becomes 'kill' (ice can informally mean to kill or assassinate).
'set' placed around 'kill' is 'SKILLET'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for skillet that I've seen before include "Small frying pan" , "Small long-handled pan" , "Frying-pan" , "Cooking-pot" , "Small cooking pot" .)