Word.ws English Dictionary

on the boil

on the boil prepositional phrase: simmering strongly and about to boil.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Of a heated liquid) simmering strongly and about to boil.
  2. (colloquial) About to happen; imminent.
    Synonyms:
    imminent
  3. (Of a heated liquid) boiling.
  4. (colloquial) continuing; active; in a state of activity or development.
    • trying to keep the deal on the boil
  5. (colloquial) Going smoothly; working well.
  6. (colloquial) Playing exceptionally well.
  7. (colloquial) (Of a player taking a pass) running at full speed towards the opposition.

Synonyms of on the boil

All synonyms of on the boil

Questions about on the boil

What does on the boil mean?
On the boil means simmering strongly and about to boil.
What part of speech is on the boil?
On the boil is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the boil in the dictionary

  1. on the bias
  2. on the blanket
  3. on the blink
  4. on the blob
  5. on the block
  6. on the boil
  7. on the boob
  8. on the book
  9. on the books
  10. on the bounce
  11. on the bow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the boil (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: “on the boil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_boil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.