boiled

1. 1
   adjective

   Prepared by cooking in water heated to a rolling boil.

   He prefers boiled potatoes to fried ones.

   A plate of boiled dumplings steamed on the table.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of boil.

   The soup boiled over while she answered the phone.

   They boiled the rags to disinfect them.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It is the simple past (the soup boiled over) and also the past participle, which pairs with have in perfects (she has boiled the eggs) and with be in passives (the rags were boiled). Because boil works with or without an object, the form can describe the liquid itself or what someone did to it. In informal British use, someone can even have boiled the kettle, heating the container so that its contents boil.

3. 3
   adjective

   Heated until reaching the temperature at which the liquid turns to vapor.

   The recipe calls for boiled water that has cooled slightly.

   Sterilize the jars with boiled water before filling them.

   Note

   A word used mostly of water, and its tense matters: boiled water has already been through the boil, while boiling water is still at it. That is why recipes and sterilizing instructions can ask for boiled water that has cooled. What counts is that it once reached the boiling point, not that it is hot now.

4. 4
   adjective

   Extremely hot, to an uncomfortable degree.

   Tourists fled the boiled midday sidewalk for shade.

   By noon the boiled valley had become unbearable.

   Similarscorching, sweltering, baking, roasting, blistering

   Oppositefreezing, cool

5. 5
   adjectivecolloquial

   Extremely angry or worked up.

   The manager was boiled about the missed deadline.

   Fans were boiled over the referee's bad call.

   Similarfurious, livid, fuming, steaming, irate

   Oppositecalm

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   Drunk and heavily affected by alcohol.

   Half the guests were boiled before dinner even started.

   He got thoroughly boiled at the reunion.

   Similardrunk, plastered, sozzled, sloshed, pickled

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Colloquial talk for drunk that welcomes a simile. Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival (1965) has a character who is "boiled as an owl" with a four o'clock closing still ahead of him. Because it shares its colloquial register with the "angry" meaning, context has to do the sorting: boiled at the reunion is drink, and boiled about the deadline is temper.

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