[f. BOIL v.]
1. An act of boiling.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord., 470. Gif hom but a boyle.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Apricock, Give ’em seven or eight smart Boils.
1845. Eliza Acton, Cookery, ii. (1852), 55. Give the sauce a minute’s boil.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 655. The extrication of gas called the boil, which accompanies the fusion of crown-glass.
2. The state of boiling or being at boiling point; also transf. and fig. a state of agitation.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 302. The next [moment] nor ship nor shadow was there, But a boil that arose from the deep below.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 341. As soon as the liquor comes to a boil.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., I. 44. The pudding was already on the boil.
1870. Daily News, 30 Dec., 6/5. His sergeant told him he was in dangerous quarters, but the coffee was near the boil.
3. That which is boiled, a boiling preparation.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 159. I put the linen … into a boil of soap.
