boil
/bɔɪ(ə)l/
boil noun: a localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.
Noun (1)
boil (plural boils)
- A localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.
Noun (2)
boil (plural boils)
- 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
- 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...1992, C. Paige Gutierrez, Cajun Foodways, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 89
- A group of hawks.
- Hawks often look at each other as they ride their thermals, and if one is rising more rapidly, dozens of hawks—even hundreds—will join it, forming a "kettle" or a "boil" of hawks, one of the most spectacular sights in the bird world.1982 September, Lawrence S. Earley, “Appalachian Wild Surfers”, in Wildlife in North Carolina, volume 46, number 9, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, page 4
- The clouds last evening: white, bountiful, against a field of cerulean sky. A boil of hawks darted above me.2011, Christopher G. Kennedy, “Post-Romantic Post-Mortem”, in Ennui Prophet, BOA Editions, Ltd., →ISBN, page 49
- 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
Verb
boil (third-person singular simple present boils, present participle boiling, simple past and past participle boiled or (nonstandard, regional) boilt)
- To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.
- Boil some water in a pan.
- Antonyms:
- condense
- To cook in boiling water.
- Boil the eggs for three minutes.
- Is the rice boiling yet?
- To begin to turn into a gas, seethe.
- Pure water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
- 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
- To be uncomfortably hot.
- It’s boiling outside!
- Antonyms:
- freeze
- To feel uncomfortably hot.
- I’m boiling in here – could you open the window?
- Antonyms:
- freeze
- 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
- 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...
- 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...
boil meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
boil in Hindi
- accumulation of pus
- फुंसी phunsī, फोड़ा phoṛā, स्फोट sphoṭ, स्फोटक sphoṭak
- (transitive) heat (a liquid) until it begins to turn into a gas
- उबलना ubalnā
boil in Tamil
- கொதிக்க வை, காய்ச்சு, கொதித்தல், கொப்பளம்
boil in Marathi
- accumulation of pus
- गळू gaḷū
- (transitive) heat (a liquid) until it begins to turn into a gas
- उकळणे ukaḷṇe
boil in Urdu
- (transitive) heat (a liquid) until it begins to turn into a gas
- ابلنا ubalnā
More languagesFewer languages
- boil in Bengali
- ফোটা phōṭa, ফোটানো phōṭanō, ফোড়া phōṛa, ক্ষত khoto
- boil in Telugu
- కురుపు kurupu
- boil in Malayalam
- തിളപ്പിയ്ക്കുക tiḷappiykkuka, തിളയ്ക്കുക tiḷaykkuka
- boil in Kannada
- ಗಂಡ gaṇḍa
- boil in Punjabi
- ਫੋੜਾ phoṛā
- boil in Gujarati
- ફોલ્લો phollo, બાફવું bāphvũ
- boil in Odia
- ଫୁଟାନ୍ତୁ, ସିଝାନ୍ତୁ, ଫୁଟନ୍ତୁ
- boil in Sanskrit
- स्फोट sphoṭa, स्फोटक sphoṭaka, विस्फोटक visphoṭaka, श्रायति śrāyati
- boil in Sinhala
- ගඩුව gaḍuwa, උතුරනවා uturanawā
- boil in Assamese
- গাঁৰ gãr, উতলা utola, উতলোৱা utolüa, সিজা xiza
- boil in Nepali
- उमाल्नु umālnu
- boil in Tagalog
- pigsa
- boil in Arabic
- دُمَّل dummal, خُرَاج ḵurāj, ثُؤْلُول ṯuʔlūl, غَلَيَان ḡalayān
- boil in Malay
- mendidihkan, merebus, didih
- boil in Indonesian
- didih, merebus, godok, menggodok
- boil in Persian
- جوشیدن jušidan
- boil in Thai
- ฝี fǐi, ต้ม dtôm, เดือด dʉ̀ʉat
- boil in Vietnamese
- nhọt, đun, đun sôi, luộc
- boil in Myanmar
- ကျို kyui, ပြုတ် prut, ဆူ hcu
Examples of boil in a sentence
- 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:
- These include crawfish and seafood boils, family boucheries, and community festivals.1992, C. Paige Gutierrez, Cajun Foodways, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 89:
- 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...
Synonyms of boil
Antonyms
Forms of boil
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | boils |
| alternative form | boyl |
| alternative form | boyle |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | boils |
| present participle | boiling |
| past participle | boiled |
| past | boiled |
| past participle regional (nonstandard) | boilt |
| past regional (nonstandard) | boilt |
Origin of boil
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.
Words formed from boil
- Aleppo boil
- Baghdad boil
- Biskara boil
- blind boil
- Delhi boil
- gumboil
- Natal boil
- sand boil
- tar boil
- 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
- seafood boil
- 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
Phrases with boil
Words that rhyme with boil
Questions about boil
- What does boil mean?
- Boil means a localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.
- What is boil in Hindi?
- Boil in Hindi is फुंसी (phunsī), फोड़ा (phoṛā), स्फोट (sphoṭ). See Boil meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use boil in a sentence?
- 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 […]
- What part of speech is boil?
- Boil can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce boil?
- Boil is pronounced /bɔɪ(ə)l/ (UK).
- What is the plural of boil?
- The plural of boil is boils.
Words near boil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boil (page history and authors); boil (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ক্ষত (Bengali) (page history and authors); ಗಂಡ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਫੋੜਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); boil (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); උතුරනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-boil.wav.
Cite this entry: “boil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.