boil

Etymology 1

From Middle English bile, büle (“boil, tumor”), from Old English bȳl, bȳle (“boil, swelling”), from Proto-Germanic *būlijō, *būlō (“boil”). Akin to Dutch buil (“boil, swelling”), German Beule (“boil, hump”), Icelandic beyla (“swelling, hump”). The expected form is bile; the rounding of the diphthong could be caused by the initial b- and/or by association with etymology 2.

noun

1. A localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.

Etymology 2

From Middle English boillen, from Old French boillir (French: bouillir) from Latin bullīre, present active infinitive of bulliō (“I bubble, boil”), from bulla (“bubble”). Displaced native Old English weallan (intransitive) and wiellan (transitive). More at wall, well.

noun

1. The point at which fluid begins to change to a vapour; the boiling point.
   Add the noodles when the water comes to the boil.
2. An instance of boiling.
   Surface water will do, but give it a good boil before drinking it.
3. A dish of boiled food, especially seafood.
   a down-home boil with plenty of crab
   This is Brad's classic shrimp boil—a recipe he makes for every tailgate party. Brad demands, “Don't use utensils!” INGREDIENTS: Two 6-ounce boxes Old Bay crab/shrimp boil seasoning[…] 2007-01-30, Angela Skinner, Race Day Grub: Recipes from the NASCAR Family, John Wiley & Sons, page 65
   CRAWFISH BOIL EN GELÉE (TERRINE OF CRAWFISH) […] For a typical Louisiana shrimp boil, use the recipe for Crawfish Boil (page 28), substituting shrimp for the crawfish […] 2009-09-29, John Besh, My New Orleans: The Cookbook, Andrews McMeel Publishing, pages 28, 30, 123
4. (US) A social event at which people gather to boil and eat food, especially seafood. (Compare a bake or clambake.)
   a down-home boil at the town hall
   Men and boys also learn to cook at the public and semipublic food events at which men are the primary cooks. These include crawfish and seafood boils, family boucheries, and community festivals. For example, at one crab boil I attended, a grandfather and his eight-year-old grandson cooked the second batch of crabs […]. The advent of crawfish farming has expanded the availability of live crawfish beyond the old seasonal limits just described, but few Cajuns in St. Martin Parish have crawfish boils, or eat crawfish in any form, out of season. 1992, C. Paige Gutierrez, Cajun Foodways, Univ. Press of Mississippi, page 89
   The whole live crawfish typically are consumed at home and at crawfish boils and other social events where the crawfish is boiled[…] 1996, United States International Trade Commission, Crawfish Tail Meat from China, page 5
   I met him and his wife, Diane, at a shrimp boil I'd been invited to by another ex-trawler named Lindel. 2012-11-20, Jill Ann Harrison, Buoyancy on the Bayou: Shrimpers Face the Rising Tide of Globalization, Cornell University Press, page 89
   I also felt the desire to be in a more intimate, familiar setting where we could choose whether or not to talk about our memories of 2005; I ended up spending the evening at a shrimp boil hosted by good friends. 2018-06-04, Kate Parker Horigan, Consuming Katrina: Public Disaster and Personal Narrative, Univ. Press of Mississippi, page 109
   When Mondale had run for president two summers before, for some reason he opened his campaign in Beaufort, at a shrimp boil in our new waterfront park. 2020-02-17, Harriet Keyserling, Against the Tide: One Woman's Political Struggle, Univ of South Carolina Press, page 155
5. (rare, nonstandard) The collective noun for a group of hawks.
6. (Scotland, archaic) A bubbling.
   He swam to the place where Mary disappeared but there was neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of departing breath, to mark the place where his beloved had sunk. 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

verb

1. (transitive, of liquids) To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.
   Boil some water in a pan.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To cook in boiling water.
   Boil the eggs for three minutes.
   Is the rice boiling yet?
3. (intransitive, of liquids) To begin to turn into a gas, seethe.
   Pure water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
4. (transitive, UK, informal) To bring to a boil, to heat so as to cause the contents to boil.
5. (intransitive, informal, used only in progressive tenses, of weather) To be uncomfortably hot.
   It’s boiling outside!
6. (intransitive, informal, used only in progressive tenses) To feel uncomfortably hot.
   I’m boiling in here – could you open the window?
7. (transitive) To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation.
   to boil sugar or salt
   Another leader in the packaged product business was the Procter & Gamble Company, formed in Cincinnati in 1837 by William Procter, who molded candles, and his brother-in-law, James Gamble, who boiled soap. 2016, Alex Groner, American Heritage History of American Business
8. (obsolete) To steep or soak in warm water.
9. To be agitated like boiling water; to bubble; to effervesce.
   the boiling waves of the sea
10. To be moved or excited with passion; to be hot or fervid.
    His blood boils with anger.
    The city boiled with money. Rents and property values had never been higher, and in the garment industry it was widely held that fashion had never been so fashionable. New restaurants opened every hour. 2002 [2001], Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Vintage, page 3