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Glite Dictionary
🥚 To cook too long 💦 To overflow
to overboil

to overboil

5.5
To cook food in boiling water for too long so it becomes very soft and loses flavor
  • verb
  • /ˌoʊvərˈbɔɪl/
translation icon : cocinar en exceso
  • The soup was ruined because the chef had accidentally overboiled it for too long.

Examples

  • If you overboil vegetables, they can lose their flavor and nutrients.

  • Be careful not to overboil the eggs or the yolks will turn gray.

  • Don't overboil the pasta!

  • She overboiled the vegetables yesterday.

  • Be careful not to overboil the pasta, or it will become mushy.

  • If you overboil the eggs, the yolks will turn green.

  • To make the soup taste good, avoid letting it overboil on the stove.

Synonyms

to overcook
vsto overboil
13 1.0

To cook food for too long so it becomes dry or less tasty

is specific to boiling and spoils texture more than general drying
to oversoften
vsto overboil
6.1

To make something too soft so it loses shape or strength

focuses on boiling too long and spoils intended texture rather than just softening

Antonyms

to cook evenly
2 2.5

Heat all parts of food so they are done at the same time

cooked to perfection
1 3.0

Food that is prepared exactly right has the best taste and texture

How Cooked

to burn
∞ 1.0
to overboil
5.5
to cook
∞ 1.0
to undercook
8 2.7

Surface Forms

overboil infinitive
overboiled past
overboiled past participle
overboiling present participle
overboils third person singular

Morphology

overboil = boil (transparent) = over + boil + over

Formed by productive prefixation 'over-' (excess) onto 'boil', giving the sense 'to boil excessively/too long'.

Etymology

The word overboil comes from over- ('too much') and boil ('to heat until bubbles'), like overcook when you cook food too long. So to overboil is to boil food more than needed so it becomes spoiled or loses its texture.