Word.ws English Dictionary

boiling frog

Syllables: boil·ing frogUK/ˈbɔɪlɪŋ ˌfɹɒɡ/US/ˈbɔɪlɪŋ ˌfɹɑɡ/

boiling frog noun: a person who, or thing which, is in a gradually worsening situation without any realization of the peril until it is too late.

Noun

boiling frog (plural boiling frogs)

  1. (attributive, idiomatic, often) A person who, or thing which, is in a gradually worsening situation without any realization of the peril until it is too late.
    • Environmental pollution and the overconsumption of nonreplenishable resources is the boiling frog syndrome of the 21st century.
    • You can guess what the politicians said back then, too. "Don't worry," I'll bet they claimed, "tax rates will never rise!" It's the Boiling Frog Syndrome all over again.2005, Ric Edelman, “The Greatest Discovery of the 20th Century”, in The Truth about Money, 3rd edition, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, Inc., →ISBN, part I (Introduction to Financial Planning), page 26

Examples of boiling frog in a sentence

  • Also, they may be victims of the boiling frog syndrome themselves, adjusting their perception daily.2009, Richard Boyatzis, “How and Why Individuals are Able to Develop Emotional Intelligence”, in Cary Cherniss, Daniel Goleman, editors...
  • The boiling frog syndrome portrays how people react to change.2010, Anne [Elizabeth] Makzulak, “Green Biotechnology”, in Sustainability: Building Eco-friendly Communities (Green Technology), New York...
  • DotCloud was a "boiling frog." That's how [Solomon] Hykes and early investor Peter Fenton of Benchmark now describe dotCloud as it struggled in 2012.2015 July 1, Alex Konrad, “Meet Docker’s Solomon Hykes, the Godfather of Software’s Container Craze”, in Forbes, archived from the original...
  • Now, you have to pay to send out your messages to people who chose to follow you. [You’ve become] a boiling frog.2016 May 4, Shaun Prescott, quoting Tim Sweeney, “Tim Sweeney Renews Attack on Microsoft’s UWP [Universal Windows Platform]”, in PC Gamer...

Forms of boiling frog

pluralboiling frogs

Origin of boiling frog

From a widespread misconception describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.

Questions about boiling frog

What does boiling frog mean?
Boiling frog means a person who, or thing which, is in a gradually worsening situation without any realization of the peril until it is too late.
How do you use boiling frog in a sentence?
Also, they may be victims of the boiling frog syndrome themselves, adjusting their perception daily.
What part of speech is boiling frog?
Boiling frog is a noun.
How do you pronounce boiling frog?
Boiling frog is pronounced /ˈbɔɪlɪŋ ˌfɹɒɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of boiling frog?
The plural of boiling frog is boiling frogs.

Words near boiling frog in the dictionary

  1. boilies
  2. boilin'
  3. boiling
  4. boiling away
  5. boiling down
  6. boiling frog
  7. boiling frogs
  8. boiling hot
  9. boiling mad
  10. boiling off
  11. boiling over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boiling frog (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: en-au-boiling frog.ogg.

Cite this entry: “boiling frog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boiling_frog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.