boils

1. 1
   verb

   Third person singular present of boil.

   The kettle boils within minutes on the new stove.

   Seawater boils at a slightly higher temperature than fresh water.

   Note

   The form after he, she, it or a singular noun, and it works with or without an object. The water boils on its own, while a cook boils the eggs. Informal British use puts the container in the object slot, so someone boils the kettle when they bring the water inside it to a boil. In casual speech a room that boils is simply uncomfortably hot.

   He boils the kettle before anyone else is awake.

   She boils the potatoes for twenty minutes.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of boil.

   Painful boils developed along his neck and had to be drained by a physician.

   The cluster of boils on her shoulder finally healed after a week of antibiotics.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here: boils is also the verb's present-tense form, so only the sentence tells "painful boils" from "the soup boils." As a noun plural it mostly counts skin infections. American English also uses it for social gatherings where food, especially seafood, is boiled and eaten together, as in "summer seafood boils." A rare, nonstandard use makes a boil a group of hawks.

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