Roil

verb

verb ·1 syllable ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To render turbid by stirring up the dregs or sediment of. transitive

    "to roil wine, cider, etc, in casks or bottles"

  2. 2
    make turbid by stirring up the sediments of wordnet
  3. 3
    To annoy; to make angry; to throw into discord. transitive

    "That his friends should believe it, was what roiled him exceedingly."

  4. 4
    be agitated wordnet
  5. 5
    To bubble, seethe. intransitive

    "By noon, Brian's stomach had begun to roil and knot. He hurried down to the bathroom at the end of the hall in his stocking feet, closed the door, and vomited into the toilet bowl as quietly as he could."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    To romp or tumble. intransitive

    "The finale was a romp in which the entire troupe burst out of the bouldering cave and roiled along the walls."

Antonyms

All antonyms

Example

More examples

"The news of Russian election interference will roil parliament."

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Possibly from French or Middle French rouiller (“to rust, make muddy”), from Old French rouil (“mud, rust”), from Vulgar Latin *robicula, from Latin robigo (“rust, blight”)

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