Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to seethe with anger

to seethe with anger

1 7.4
To feel very angry while trying not to show it
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : hirviente de ira
  • I am still seething with anger at Obama's horrible performance.

Examples

  • After he read the unfair comments about him online, he was seething with anger.

  • When you are lying next to someone and you are seething with anger, it's not good.

    Blog text (3)

  • Your post and every other one like it make me seethe with anger.

    Blog text (14)

  • While I set the table for supper, I seethed with anger.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I stormed out of the house seething with anger.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • In Beijing, where the news blackout continued, the population seethed with anger.

    Academic text (1990)

  • I can gauge if she is not about those games if she is just seething with anger from not getting that sleep, which has happened a couple of times.

    Blog text (13)

  • But she wasn't sad; by the set of her jaw and the pulsing vein in her neck, Buffy realized she was seething with anger.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • She quietly seethed with anger as her coworkers dismissed her ideas in the meeting.

  • He couldn't hide his frustration and continued to seethe with anger at the poor service.

Synonyms

to fume
vsto seethe with anger
22 6.3

To feel very angry without showing it

tends to be more suppressed and barely visible not openly shown
to seethe
vsto seethe with anger
18 7.3

To feel very angry but not show it

is barely controlled and often close to showing outward signs
to sizzle
vsto seethe with anger
8 5.6

To feel very angry inside without showing it

remains barely controlled and often close to being hidden

Antonyms

calm
735 1.0

Not showing strong feelings and being very still

How Angry

to rage
84 4.8
to seethe with anger
1 7.4
irritation
27 3.6

Surface Forms

seethe with anger infinitive
seethed with anger past
seethed with anger past participle
seething with anger present participle
seethes with anger third person singular

Morphology

seethe + with + anger

The meaning is directly compositional: 'seethe' denotes being filled with suppressed fury and the prepositional phrase 'with anger' specifies the emotion, so a learner who knows the constituent words can derive the full sense. This construction follows a common verb + preposition + noun pattern that is cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be immediately understandable to B1 learners who know the parts.

Etymology

Seethe with anger comes from the image of a pot boiling: the word seethe once meant 'to boil', so the water moves and bubbles under the lid. So when someone 'seethes', their anger is like hidden boiling water—they are very angry inside but try not to show it.