boil down

verb

1. to reduce or be reduced in quantity and usually altered in consistency by boiling

   to boil a liquid down to a thick glue

2. 1. (intr) to be the essential element in something

   2. (tr) to summarize; reduce to essentials

Idioms and Phrases

Simplify, summarize, or shorten, as in John finally managed to boil his thesis down to 200 pages .

boil down to . Be reducible to basic elements, be equivalent to. For example, What this issue boils down to is that the council doesn't want to spend more money . These metaphoric usages allude to reducing and concentrating a substance by boiling off liquid. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

“I think it boils down to the guys we have in the clubhouse,” said Muncy earlier this week in a pregame news conference.

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The controversy boils down to the esoteric rules that govern the game’s rating system.

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“This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition,” she added: “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

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But it really boiled down to one thing: Stop Barkley.

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It was the 2025 season boiled down into three hours of roars, then screams, then sighs.

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Related Words

• adapt 
• alter 
• analyze 
• annotate 
• arrange 
• assemble 
• censor 
• choose 
• compile 
• compose 
• delete 
• prepare 
• publish 
• rearrange 
• revise 
• select