go off the boil

present singular third person goes off the boil · participle present going off the boil · past went off the boil · participle past gone off the boil

1. AustraliaUKTo cease to boil when heat is no longer applied.

   All puddings must be boiled in plenty of water, turned frequently, kept closely covered, and never allowed to go off the boil.

   1891, Nelson A. Dunning, editor, The Farmers' Alliance History and Agricultural Digest

   1 more example

   That is the reason for the coin. You will be able to hear it dancing about, and it will tell you if the water goes off the boil or is getting dangerously low.

   1972, Diana Kennedy, Craig Claibourne, The Cuisines of Mexico

2. AustraliaUKidiomaticTo lose interest; to pall.

   As one of the rearguard put it, "We laid up until the Hun had gone off the boil a bit and slipped out the following night."

   1955, John Baker White, The Big Lie

   3 more examples

   But John, not surprisingly, has gone off the boil, and feels nothing for Annette so strongly as an intense weariness and desire to be rid of her.

   1987, Rosalind Miles, The Female Form: Women Writers and the Conquest of the Novel

   Wednesday to Shadow, "I don't sleep. It's overrated. A bad habit I do my best to avoid - in company, wherever possible, and the young lady may go off the boil if I don't get back to her."

   2004, Neil Gaiman, American Gods

   By then we'd gone off the boil sexually and he was even less keen than I was about 'marriedness', so it was more like friends deciding to share a flat than the setting-up of a ménage.

   2009, Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir

3. AustraliaUKidiomaticTo diminish in intensity or urgency.
4. AustraliaUKidiomaticTo become less successful.