[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. Bubbling up under the influence of heat; at boiling temperature.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sages, 2460. A gret boiland cauderoun.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., 1318. Full of brimstane, pick, and bulling leid.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1827), VIII. lxiv. 34. Cast headlong into the boiling water.
1832. Athenæum, No. 219. 17. The cook with the boiling kettle in her hand.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, III. 229. Two boiling sulphureous springs.
2. transf. Violently agitated, raging; fiercely hot; heaving with molecular disturbance.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. lvii. 21. As the boilinge se, that resten mai not.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxxii. 501. None coude abyde there, for it was all a quycke boylyng sande.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 443. Rocks the bellowing Voice of boiling Seas rebound.
1868. T. W. Webb, Celest. Objects, II. (1873), 39. [The comet] is quite hazy, luminous in the centre, and boiling (atmospherically unsteady).
3. fig. Inflamed, in a state of passionate agitation, bursting with passion, etc.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 238/2. Mens desires are too much boyling.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXI. x. 398. A youth boyling in ambition.
1672. Dryden, Conq. Granada, II. (1725), 44. My boiling Passions settle and go down.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VIII. 1175. His understanding ’scapes the common cloud Of Fumes, arising from a boiling Breast.
1836. J. C. Young, Mem. C. M. Young (1871), 236. She found him in a state of boiling indignation.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 319. Exhortation in set speeches always has been, and always will be, the feeblest bulwark against the boiling floods of passion that helpless virtue ever invented.
4. quasi-adv., in phrase boiling hot.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 312. Hogs grease and bran boiling hot.
1862. Enquire Within, 83. it should be poured on boiling-hot.
