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Glite Dictionary
🥘 To heat liquid 😡 To be very angry 🌡️ Boiling point 🤕 A skin lump
to boil

to boil

255 1.0
To heat a liquid until it bubbles and becomes gas
  • verb
  • /bɔɪl/
: hervir
  • The key to making ramen is you boil the water, right?
  • boil water
  • boil milk
  • boil an egg

I hate that man that boils my damn beef.

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Examples

  • I want eggs boiled soft, the way Mommy makes them.

    Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster (2011)

  • I put water on to boil and got the beans out of the freezer.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We need to boil water.

    United 93 (2006)

  • Go and boil some water.

    EverAfter (1998)

  • Now, boil the water, get the steam going.

    Crocodile Dundee (1986)

  • I just have this white quinoa and I boil it with some water.

  • Put the nettles in a saucepan with 1 teaspoon of salt and boil over high heat until cooked.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The potatoes are boiled, diced, mixed with beaten eggs and cooked in a cast iron skillet.

    Stay (2020)

  • Johnny Gomez, as we locals called him, boiled our newcomers their first Florida lobster.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • You should boil the potatoes for at least twenty minutes until they are soft.

Synonyms

to bring to a boil
vsto boil
16 2.6

To heat a liquid until it boils or make a situation very intense

is heating or cooking while the liquid stays in a hot bubbling state

Antonyms

to cool
225 1.0

To make or become less warm

to freeze
215 1.0

Become solid because of cold, like water turning to ice

Idioms

off the boil
  • UK
1 6.0

Hot food or drink that is not bubbling so you can use it

to boil the ocean
  • Jargon
1 9.6

To try to do something too big to finish

to make one's blood boil
  • Informal
7.0

To cause someone to feel very angry

Phrasal Verbs

to boil down
  • Informal
93 4.2

Come to the main point or idea

to bring to a boil
16 2.6

To heat a liquid until it boils or make a situation very intense

to boil over
13 2.4

Hot liquid gets too high and spills out of its container

to boil over
  • Informal
8 4.8

To suddenly lose control and show strong anger

to boil down
3 3.8

Cook a liquid until much of its water goes away and it becomes thicker

Compounds

boil smut
  • Archaic
9.9

A disease of corn that makes grey-white bumps burst and show black dust

Delhi boil
  • Archaic
9.9

A skin disease that makes open sores on exposed skin after sandfly bites

Aleppo boil
  • Archaic
9.4

A skin disease that causes painful open sores

How Hot

to boil
255 1.0
to seethe
8 6.3
to simmer
38 2.5
to poach
8 3.9

Surface Forms

boil infinitive
boiled past
boiled past participle
boiling present participle
boils third person singular

Etymology

The word boil as a verb means to make a liquid 'bubble' with heat, coming from the same idea of bubbling and rising. That is why we say to boil water or food until it bubbles and cooks.