roil

[ roil ]

verb (used with object)

1. to render (water, wine, etc.) turbid by stirring up sediment.
2. to disturb or disquiet; irritate; vex:

   to be roiled by a delay.

   Synonyms: rile, provoke, exasperate, ruffle, fret, annoy

verb (used without object)

1. to move or proceed turbulently.

roil

/ rɔɪl /

verb

1. tr to make (a liquid) cloudy or turbid by stirring up dregs or sediment
2. intr (esp of a liquid) to be agitated or disturbed
3. dialect.
   intr to be noisy or boisterous
4. See rile
   tr another word (now rare) for rile

Other Words From

• un·roiled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of roil¹

First recorded in 1580–90; origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of roil¹

C16: of unknown origin; compare rile

Example Sentences

The roiling mass of convection, or shower and thunderstorm activity, has recently acquired more spin, an indication that a center of low pressure is developing.

From Washington Post

The most significant is that it would stabilize part of the interior against convective heat, which otherwise would roil Saturn’s insides with turbulence.

From MIT Technology Review

Videos produced by Becher’s team show exactly how air comes out of different instruments, in what looks like roiling puffs of smoke.

From Science News

Neither is absorbing blame for some of the quality-of-life issues roiling California, like homelessness and energy costs.

From Washington Post

Smith’s comments about Ohtani and the blowback to them came a little more than a week after ESPN was roiled by a leaked video of Rachel Nichols, a host of the network’s NBA coverage, making disparaging comments about colleague Maria Taylor.

From Washington Post

And contemporaneous observers predicted that South Africa would fracture, that a civil war would roil for the next decade.

From The Daily Beast

Like it or not, ethnicity, assimilation and wages are the same the currents that roil immigration.

From The Daily Beast

A year after the fall of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, violence continues to roil Libya, heightening fears that the revolution could fail.

From The Daily Beast

The poet Mary Oliver tells us to row, row into the swirl and roil.

From The Daily Beast

And markets in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Japan, and China continue to roil.

From The Daily Beast

So saying, he drew a thick roil of documents from beneath his pillow, and placed it in his son's hands.

From Project Gutenberg

The house being near the head, there will not water enough get into the spring, in any storm, to roil the water.

From Project Gutenberg

He said boast an roil, an he meant roast an boil em, didnt he?

From Project Gutenberg

There we should find the slanderous Blacow, and at the head of the muster-roil might be placed Slop.

From Project Gutenberg

I know you told me not to roil round and so forth, but I knew you didn't mean it.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• muddy
• rile
• stir