boil down

British  

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

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boil down Idioms  

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

2. 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]

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Example Sentences

They would funnel information and boil down data to pithy takeaways for their superiors.

From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026

Thereupon nuclear bluster permanently vanished from the U.S. presidential vocabulary, experts in diplomacy tell us, for reasons that boil down to a loss of credibility once Moscow could match the U.S. in nuclear firepower.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

The Department of Homeland Security executes numerous different types of deportations, but those boil down to two main methods: “removals” and “returns.”

From Slate • Jun. 14, 2025

Let me boil down the therapy-speak for you: I tend to ignore conflict in my relationships because I’m hyper-independent but simultaneously crave intimacy with people even though I also fear it.

From Salon • Jan. 4, 2025

We used to discuss some of these matters, but we both knew the question would boil down to my saying, “Ted, you decide.”

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

Related Words

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• select