seethe
Americanverb (used without object)
-
seethes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
seethed,
past participle, past
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sod,
past (Obsolete)
-
sodden,
past participle (Obsolete)
-
seething
present participle
-
to surge or foam as if boiling.
-
to be in a state of agitation or excitement.
-
Archaic. to boil.
verb (used with object)
-
seethes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
seethed,
past participle, past
-
sod,
past (Obsolete)
-
sodden,
past participle (Obsolete)
-
seething
present participle
-
to soak or steep.
-
to cook by boiling or simmering; boil.
noun
-
the act of seething.
-
the state of being agitated or excited.
verb
-
(intr) to boil or to foam as if boiling
-
(intr) to be in a state of extreme agitation, esp through anger
-
(tr) to soak in liquid
-
archaic (tr) to cook or extract the essence of (a food) by boiling
noun
Synonym Usage
See boil 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
seethesimple
-
seethessimple
-
have seethedperfect
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have soddenperfect
-
has seethedperfect
-
has soddenperfect
-
am seethingprogressive
-
are seethingprogressive
-
is seethingprogressive
-
have been seethingperfect progressive
-
has been seethingperfect progressive
Past
-
seethedsimple
-
sodsimple
-
had seethedperfect
-
had soddenperfect
-
was seethingprogressive
-
were seethingprogressive
-
had been seethingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of seethe
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English sēothan; cognate with German sieden, Swedish sjuda
Explanation
If a liquid seethes, it is boiling, but if it's a person who's seething, watch out! He or she is really angry! In the cooking sense, to seethe means to "boil" and if you are seething with anger, you might say that your blood is boiling. However seethe can also mean "filled with activity." Imagine a room seething with excited people. Now imagine that you are watching that room from a balcony. See how the people move here and there? It's almost as if they are bubbling around.
Vocabulary lists containing seethe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As Mira and Edgar tentatively approach discussion of the breach in the family, it’s primarily Beckett who begins to seethe with anger at what happened—and what didn’t.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
U.S. consumers over the border will seethe with envy.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
People are right to seethe over the stranglehold film and TV franchises have on the industry.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2025
Fans were overjoyed to seethe five Spice Girls back together for the first time in years, with many commenting on Beckham's post.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2024
I have never known anyone who would even venture to stick his toe in its polluted brown waters, which seethe with sewage, industrial waste, and deadly insecticides.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Sal quietly seethes with irritation at Sonny’s misbegotten machinations, his chilly demeanor suggesting a tense and potentially dangerous volatility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
His father Carlos seethes at their current ordeal.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
Chernin, more reserved in his manner, seethes with futile terror.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
One, 3800-meter-high Mount Erebus, seethes menacingly just 40 kilometers from McMurdo Station, Antarctica’s biggest research base.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 2, 2024
That black sludge seethes with intentions I’d rather not know about.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
The Kim regime seethed when, on four different occasions between September and January, drones intruded into North Korea’s airspace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
"It's a Manchester derby," seethed former United captain Gary Neville on Sky Sports after the dull goalless draw at Old Trafford.
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2025
That many readers seethed at my assertion that the lack of attention paid to the anniversary was unsurprising to me since Anaheim is a place that loves to “celebrate the positive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2025
“You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, huh, you lied about them other kids that’s out there hoping that you come,” Lamar seethed.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
We spun toward the sound, rattled, and for a moment just stood listening as it seethed and howled at the mouth of the tunnel.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
The guitarist didn’t skip a beat: “That suits me, I’m a miserable sod most of the time.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
For this enormous game, new grass was specially sourced from a nearby sod farm.
From Barron's ● Feb. 7, 2026
Mr Williams said: "I'm just a stubborn old sod and I'm not going to give in. I would appreciate it if anybody said to me 'you were right and we were wrong'."
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2025
SoFi’s 70-by-110-meter field, grown at a sod farm in Washington state, was laid down in strips earlier this month and was used for the first time Thursday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2025
Then she covered the hole with a large slab of sod.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
And if you aren’t moved by it, there is something wrong and you must investigate your sodden heart.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
The ball travelled unpredictably across the sodden surface.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
Scotland's campaign got off to a disappointing start in losing to Italy in sodden conditions in Rome.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
That was the span between his unlikely emergence as co-leader of a sodden US Open and JJ Spaun holing an astonishing 64-foot putt to deny the Scot any hope of a play-off.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
His hair was the brown of sodden straw, and it stuck out at awkward, seventeen-year-old angles, wet and comb it howsoever much he tried.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Just below the surface, however, the soccer world was seething with discontent.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
"I would've been quite happy to get in my car and drive home, I was absolutely seething," said Carter afterwards.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026
It’s a truly stunning expression of his rage and betrayal — a seething accusation — told entirely through bodies and gesture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
The rest of the team did not acknowledge him and I was seething, but fortunately I decided to wait before dealing with him.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
But before it could find safety it was swallowed up in a seething swarm of birds.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
