boilover
A hazardous situation where an attempt is made to extinguish semi-enclosed oil- or…A hazardous situation where an attempt is made to extinguish semi-enclosed oil- or petrochemical-fuelled fire with water, generating steam which propels the burning fuel outwards.
Meaning
2 senses(countable, uncountable)A hazardous situation where an attempt is made to extinguish semi-enclosed oil- or petrochemical-fuelled fire with water, generating steam which propels the burning fuel outwards.
(Australia, New Zealand, countable, slang)A sporting event with an unexpected outcome, especially a horse race where the favourite fails to win.
Origin
Deverbal from boil over.Deverbal from boil over.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: boiloversWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.