boil

The usual cause fo a boil is an infection in a hair follicle with the Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria. The most common locations for boils to develop on are moist locations, such as the groin but the back of the neck is another common spot. when a boil becomes extensive, and more severe it is known as a carbuncle.

People who suffer from recurrent boils should be checked for diabetes, or any other condition in which the immune system is not at full functionality. Boils should not be burst, as this can spread infection. In the most severe cases a doctor may lance a boil with a scalpel, usually under anesthesia. Sufferers should apply hot compresses every two hours, and shower instead of bath, to minimise the chance of the infection spreading.

Boil, a disease called by medical men furunculus. It is a phlegmonous tumor, which rises externally, attended with redness and pain, and sometimes with a violent, burning heat. Ultimately it becomes pointed, breaks, and emits pus. A substance called the core is next revealed. It is purulent, but so thick and tenacious that it looks solid, and may be drawn out in the form of a cylinder, more pus following. The boil then heals. A blind boil is one which does not suppurate.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

Boil (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Boiled (#); p. pr. & vb. n. Boiling.] [OE. boilen, OF. boilir, builir, F. bouillir, fr. L. bullire to be in a bubbling motion, from bulla bubble; akin to Gr. , Lith. bumbuls. Cf. Bull an edict, Budge, v., and Ebullition.]

1.

To be agitated, or tumultuously moved, as a liquid by the generation and rising of bubbles of steam (or vapor), or of currents produced by heating it to the boiling point; to be in a state of ebullition; as, the water boils.

2.

To be agitated like boiling water, by any other cause than heat; to bubble; to effervesce; as, the boiling waves.

He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. Job xii. 31.

3.

To pass from a liquid to an aeriform state or vapor when heated; as, the water boils away.

4.

To be moved or excited with passion; to be hot or fervid; as, his blood boils with anger.

Then boiled my breast with flame and burning wrath. Surrey.

5.

To be in boiling water, as in cooking; as, the potatoes are boiling.

To boil away, to vaporize; to evaporate or be evaporated by the action of heat. -- To boil over, to run over the top of a vessel, as liquid when thrown into violent agitation by heat or other cause of effervescence; to be excited with ardor or passion so as to lose self-control.

© Webster 1913.

Boil, v. t.

1.

To heat to the boiling point, or so as to cause ebullition; as, to boil water.

2.

To form, or separate, by boiling or evaporation; as, to boil sugar or salt.

3.

To subject to the action of heat in a boiling liquid so as to produce some specific effect, as cooking, cleansing, etc.; as, to boil meat; to boil clothes.

The stomach cook is for the hall, And boileth meate for them all. Gower.

4.

To steep or soak in warm water.

To try whether seeds be old or new, the sense can not inform; but if you boil them in water, the new seeds will sprout sooner. Bacon.

To boil down, to reduce in bulk by boiling; as, to boil down sap or sirup.

© Webster 1913.

Boil, n.

Act or state of boiling.

© Webster 1913.

Boil, n. [Influenced by boil, v. See Beal, Bile.]

A hard, painful, inflamed tumor, which, on suppuration, discharges pus, mixed with blood, and discloses a small fibrous mass of dead tissue, called the core.

A blind boil, one that suppurates imperfectly, or fails to come to a head. -- Delhi boil Med., a peculiar affection of the skin, probably parasitic in origin, prevailing in India (as among the British troops) and especially at Delhi.

© Webster 1913.