Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Boil

Boil (boil) , intransitive verb

[Old English boilen, Old French boilir, builir, French bouillir, from Latin bullire to be in a bubbling motion, from bulla bubble; akin to Greek {not transcribed}, Lithuanian bumbuls. Compare Bull an edict, Budge, v., and Ebullition.]

1.
To be agitated, or tumultuously moved, as a liquid by the generation and rising of bubbles of steam (or vapor), or of currents produced by heating it to the boiling point; to be in a state of ebullition; as, the water boils.
2.
To be agitated like boiling water, by any other cause than heat; to bubble; to effervesce; as, the boiling waves.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. — Job xii. 31
3.
To pass from a liquid to an aeriform state or vapor when heated; as, the water boils away.
4.
To be moved or excited with passion; to be hot or fervid; as, his blood boils with anger.
Then boiled my breast with flame and burning wrath. — Surrey
5.
To be in boiling water, as in cooking; as, the potatoes are boiling.
Collocations (2)
To boil away , to vaporize; to evaporate or be evaporated by the action of heat.
To boil over , to run over the top of a vessel, as liquid when thrown into violent agitation by heat or other cause of effervescence; to be excited with ardor or passion so as to lose self-control.

Boil , transitive verb

1.
To heat to the boiling point, or so as to cause ebullition; as, to boil water.
2.
To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation; as, to boil sugar or salt.
3.
To subject to the action of heat in a boiling liquid so as to produce some specific effect, as cooking, cleansing, etc.; as, to boil meat; to boil clothes.
The stomach cook is for the hall, And boileth meate for them all. — Gower
4.
To steep or soak in warm water. [Obsolete]
To try whether seeds be old or new, the sense can not inform; but if you boil them in water, the new seeds will sprout sooner. — Bacon
Collocations (1)
To boil down , to reduce in bulk by boiling; as, to boil down sap or sirup.

Boil , noun

Act or state of boiling. [Colloquial]

Boil , noun

[Influenced by boil, v. See Beal, Bile.]

A hard, painful, inflamed tumor, which, on suppuration, discharges pus, mixed with blood, and discloses a small fibrous mass of dead tissue, called the core.
Collocations (2)
A blind boil , one that suppurates imperfectly, or fails to come to a head.
Delhi boil (Medicine) , a peculiar affection of the skin, probably parasitic in origin, prevailing in India (as among the British troops) and especially at Delhi.