aboil

comparative more aboil · superlative most aboil

1. In a boil; boiling.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.

   Being a devotee of the Johnny Weismuller school of Tarzaning, no wasp-waisted cartoon character can get my blood aboil.

   1999 July 18, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta, Ga, page 8

   2 more examples

   The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and even if there was nothing in it, even though there was no pot, she had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same.

   1911, J. M. Barrie, chapter 7, in Peter and Wendy, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 94

   The stove is full, with corned beef asimmer in one pot, cabbage aboil in another, and vegetable soup asteam in a third.

   2004, Patrick Livingston, Eight Steamboats: Sailing Through the Sixties, page 156

2. figurativelyHeated up; excited.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.

   He plugged on steadily, unmindful of where he was going. He was aboil with perturbation.

   1923, Donn Byrne, “Belfasters”, in Changeling and Other Stories,, New York: Century, page 100

   1 more example

   At ten o’clock on the morning of his third visit, Pablo found himself aboil with rage and sweat, glaring into the druggist’s thick horn-rimmed spectacles in an attempt to engage the dead bug eyes behind them.

   1981, Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise, New York: Knopf, page 87

1. not comparableIn a boil; boiling.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.
2. figurativelynot comparableHeated up; excited.First known use First attested in the mid 19ᵗʰ century.