Parboil

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To boil food briefly so that it is partly cooked.
  2. 2
    cook (vegetables) briefly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bakebarbecuebasteblanchblanchboil

Etymology

From Middle English parboyle, from Old French parbouillir (“to boil thoroughly”), from Medieval Latin perbulliō, from Latin per (“thoroughly”) + bulliō (“I boil”). Sense “to boil partially” (c.1440), rather than original “to boil thoroughly” is by corruption: associating the prefix with part (from Latin pars (“part”)) rather than per.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.