boil
/bɔɪ(ə)l/ noun, verb
Forms boils boiling boiled boilt boyl boyle
- noun A localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.
- 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.”
- noun An instance of boiling. “Surface water will do, but give it a good boil before drinking it.”
- noun A dish of boiled food, especially seafood. “a down-home boil with plenty of crab”
- noun (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”
- noun (rare, nonstandard, collective) A group of hawks.
- noun (archaic) A bubbling.
- verb (transitive, of liquids) To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas. “Boil some water in a pan.”
- verb (ambitransitive) To cook in boiling water. “Boil the eggs for three minutes.”
- verb (intransitive, of liquids) To begin to turn into a gas, seethe. “Pure water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.”
- verb (transitive, UK, New Zealand, informal) To bring to a boil, to heat so as to cause the contents to boil.
- verb (intransitive, informal, used only in progressive tenses, of weather) To be uncomfortably hot. “It’s boiling outside!”
- verb (intransitive, informal, used only in progressive tenses) To feel uncomfortably hot. “I’m boiling in here – could you open the window?”
- verb (transitive) To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation. “to boil sugar or salt”
- verb (obsolete) To steep or soak in warm water.
Synonyms
abscess carbuncle cyst furuncle pimple pustule seethe well plaw cook do bake scorch swelter stew boiling point churn moil roil
Antonyms
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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To be agitated, or tumultuously moved, as a liquid by the generation and rising of bubbles of steam (or vapor), or of currents produced by heating it to the boiling point; to be in a state of ebullition; as, the water boils.
- verb To be agitated like boiling water, by any other cause than heat; to bubble; to effervesce; as, the boiling waves.
- verb To heat to the boiling point, or so as to cause ebullition; as, to boil water.
- verb To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation; as, to boil sugar or salt.
Etymology [OE. boilen, OF. boilir, builir, F. bouillir, fr. L. bullire to be in a bubbling motion, from bulla bubble; akin to Gr. , Lith. bumbuls. Cf. Bull an edict, Budge, v., and Ebullition.]
Etymology [Influenced by boil, v. See Beal, Bile.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “boil”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details