Word.ws English Dictionary

boilovers

boilovers is the plural of boilover.

Meaning of boilover

Noun

boilover (countable and uncountable, plural boilovers)

  1. A hazardous situation where an attempt is made to extinguish semi-enclosed oil- or petrochemical-fuelled fire with water, generating steam which propels the burning fuel outwards.
  2. (Australia, New Zealand, countable, slang) A sporting event with an unexpected outcome, especially a horse race where the favourite fails to win.
    • […] there was not much good horsemanship. The Derby itself was an ordinary race, something of a boilover for Dark Star […]1953, Pastoralists' Review (volume 63, issues 7-12, page 716)

Questions about boilovers

What is boilovers the plural of?
Boilovers is the plural of boilover.

Words near boilovers in the dictionary

  1. boilingly
  2. boilings
  3. boiloff
  4. boiloffs
  5. boilover
  6. boilovers
  7. boils
  8. boils away
  9. boils down
  10. boils off
  11. boils over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boilovers (page history and authors); boilover (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.

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