English Reference
Idiom idiom

boil up

Meaning

To become more excited, intense or exciting.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples
SIMPLE

“The tension starts to boil up before the big game.”

CONTEXTUAL

“As the final minutes of the match approached, the excitement began to boil up among the fans in the stadium.”

COMPLEX

“The long-standing resentment between the two rival factions continued to boil up, eventually reaching a point where conflict became inevitable.”

Anchors to
Related idioms3entries
  1. 01

    boil over

    To reach the point where aggressive action is taken.

  2. 02

    go off the boil

    To lose interest; to pall.

  3. 03

    make someone's blood boil

    To cause a person to feel angry or very annoyed, especially in situation in which one cannot fully display that feeling to others.

Last updated August 10, 2026