boil meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

boil

noun

US, UK /bɔɪ(ə)l/

Etymology From Middle English bile, büle (“boil, tumor”), from Old English bȳl, bȳle (“boil, swelling”), from Proto-Germanic *būlijō, *būlō (“boil”). Akin to Dutch buil (“boil, swelling”), German Beule (“boil, hump”), Icelandic beyla (“swelling, hump”). The expected form is bile; the rounding of the diphthong could be caused by the initial b- and/or by association with etymology 2.

A localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.

Derived terms: Aleppo boil, Baghdad boil, Biskara boil, blind boil, Delhi boil, gumboil, Natal boil, sand boil, tar boil

boil

verb

Etymology From Middle English boillen, from Old French boillir (see French bouillir) from Latin bullīre (“to bubble, boil”), from bulla (“bubble”). Displaced native Old English weallan (intransitive) and wiellan (transitive). More at wall, well.

10 senses

1To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.
2To cook in boiling water.
3To begin to turn into a gas, seethe.
4To bring to a boil, to heat so as to cause the contents to boil.
5To be uncomfortably hot.
6To feel uncomfortably hot.
7To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation.
8To steep or soak in warm water.
9To be agitated like boiling water; to bubble; to effervesce.
10To be moved or excited with passion; to be hot or fervid.

Of liquids To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.

Boil some water in a pan.

Ambitransitive To cook in boiling water.

Boil the eggs for three minutes.
Is the rice boiling yet?

1 more example

Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha's thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i'th'charmed pot.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:

Of liquids To begin to turn into a gas, seethe.

Pure water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.

New Zealand, UK, Informal To bring to a boil, to heat so as to cause the contents to boil.

'I'll boil the kettle,' he said.1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 14:

Informal, Of weather, Used only in progressive tenses To be uncomfortably hot.

It’s boiling outside!

Informal, Used only in progressive tenses To feel uncomfortably hot.

I’m boiling in here – could you open the window?

To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation.

to boil sugar or salt
Another leader in the packaged product business was the Procter & Gamble Company, formed in Cincinnati in 1837 by William Procter, who molded candles, and his brother-in-law, James Gamble, who boiled soap.2016, Alex Groner, American Heritage History of American Business:

Obsolete To steep or soak in warm water.

To try whether seeds be old or new, the sense cannot inform; but if you boil them in water, the new seeds will sprout sooner.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

Of liquids To be agitated like boiling water; to bubble; to effervesce.

the boiling waves of the sea
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 12:31:

To be moved or excited with passion; to be hot or fervid.

His blood boils with anger.
Then boyld my breſt with flame and burning wrath, / To reuenge my town vnto ſuch ruine brought.1557 July 1, Virgil, “The Second Boke of Virgiles Aenæis”, in Henry [Howard, Earl] of Surrey, transl., edited by William Bolland, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenaeis, Turned into English Meter ([Roxburghe Club Publications; I]), London: […] A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1814, →OCLC:

1 more example

The city boiled with money. Rents and property values had never been higher, and in the garment industry it was widely held that fashion had never been so fashionable. New restaurants opened every hour.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 3:

Derived terms: 53 terms
aboil, beauty won't make the pot boil, blood-boiling, boilability, boilable, boil away, boildown, boil down, boil down to, boiled dinner, boiled dressing, boiled shirt, boiled sweet, boiler, boilie, boil-in-bag, boiling plate, boiling tube, boil-in-the-bag, boil off, boiloff, boil over, boil someone's piss, boil the ocean, boil up, boil wash, boil-wash, bunny-boiling, double boil, drunk as a boiled owl, eat boiled crow, emboil, glue-boiler, go and boil your head, hard-boil, hard-boiled, high-boiling, I don't boil my cabbage twice, keep the pot boiling, low-boiling, make someone's blood boil, overboil, parboil, potboil, pot boiler, preboil, reboil, slow boil, soft-boiled, stone boiling, unboil, underboil, upboil
Related terms: ebullient, bake, condense, freeze, fry, grill, poach, steam

boil

noun

The point at which fluid begins to change to a vapour; the boiling point.

Add the noodles when the water comes to the boil.

An instance of boiling.

Surface water will do, but give it a good boil before drinking it.

A dish of boiled food, especially seafood.

a down-home boil with plenty of crab
This is Brad's classic shrimp boil—a recipe he makes for every tailgate party. Brad demands, “Don't use utensils!” INGREDIENTS: Two 6-ounce boxes Old Bay crab/shrimp boil seasoning[…]2007 January 30, Angela Skinner, Race Day Grub: Recipes from the NASCAR Family, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 65:

1 more example

CRAWFISH BOIL EN GELÉE (TERRINE OF CRAWFISH) […] For a typical Louisiana shrimp boil, use the recipe for Crawfish Boil (page 28), substituting shrimp for the crawfish […]2009 September 29, John Besh, My New Orleans: The Cookbook, Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, pages 28, 30, 123:

US A social event at which people gather to boil and eat food, especially seafood. (Compare a bake or clambake.)

a down-home boil at the town hall
Men and boys also learn to cook at the public and semipublic food events at which men are the primary cooks. These include crawfish and seafood boils, family boucheries, and community festivals. For example, at one crab boil I attended, a grandfather and his eight-year-old grandson cooked the second batch of crabs […]. The advent of crawfish farming has expanded the availability of live crawfish beyond the old seasonal limits just described, but few Cajuns in St. Martin Parish have crawfish boils, or eat crawfish in any form, out of season.1992, C. Paige Gutierrez, Cajun Foodways, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 89:

4 more examples

The whole live crawfish typically are consumed at home and at crawfish boils and other social events where the crawfish is boiled[…]1996, United States International Trade Commission, Crawfish Tail Meat from China, page 5:
I met him and his wife, Diane, at a shrimp boil I'd been invited to by another ex-trawler named Lindel.2012 November 20, Jill Ann Harrison, Buoyancy on the Bayou: Shrimpers Face the Rising Tide of Globalization, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 89:
I also felt the desire to be in a more intimate, familiar setting where we could choose whether or not to talk about our memories of 2005; I ended up spending the evening at a shrimp boil hosted by good friends.2018 June 4, Kate Parker Horigan, Consuming Katrina: Public Disaster and Personal Narrative, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 109:
When Mondale had run for president two summers before, for some reason he opened his campaign in Beaufort, at a shrimp boil in our new waterfront park.2020 February 17, Harriet Keyserling, Against the Tide: One Woman's Political Struggle, Univ of South Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 155:

Nonstandard, Rare The collective noun for a group of hawks.

Archaic A bubbling.

He swam to the place where Mary disappeared but there was neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of departing breath, to mark the place where his beloved had sunk.1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:
The sea round them clouded and darkened, and then frizzed up in showers of tiny silver fish, and over a space of five or six acres the cod began to leap like trout in May; while behind the cod three or four broad gray-backs broke the water into boils.1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

Derived terms: Beaufort boil, boil order, bring to a boil, come to a boil, crab boil, fish boil, go off the boil, Lowcountry boil, low country boil, off the boil, on the boil, rolling boil, sand boil, seafood boil, tar boil
Related terms: boiled dinner

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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Conjugation of “boil”, all tenses