Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BOIL, v.i. [Fr. bouillir; L. bullio; It. bollire; Sp. bullir, to boil; L. bulla, a bubble; Rus. bul, the noise of boiling water; It. bolla, a bubble or blister; Eth. ፈልሐ faleh, Amh. ፈል fale, to boil; W. balau, to spring. Qu. Sax. weallan, to well, to boil.]

1. To swell, heave, or be agitated by the action of heat; to bubble; to rise in bubbles; as, the water boils. In a chimical sense, to pass from a liquid to an aeriform state or vapor, with a bubbling motion.
2. To be agitated by any other cause than heat; as, the boiling waves which roll and foam.
3. To be hot or fervid; to swell by native heat, vigor or irritation; as, the boiling blood of youth; his blood boils with anger.
4. To be in boiling water; to suffer boiling heat in water or or other liquid, for cookery or other purpose.
5. To bubble, to effervesce; as a mixture of acids and alkali. To boil away, to evaporate by boiling. To boil over, is to run over the top of a vessel, as liquor is when thrown into violent agitation by heat or other cause of effervescence.