seethe
Americanverb (used without object)
-
seethes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
seethed,
past participle, past
-
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
-
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
“That’s seven months from now,” I seethe at her.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
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
Envy seethes behind those opaque shades and a mask-like smirk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 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
“Didn’t you hear what Zik said the other day? Eastern Nigeria seethes, seethes, and will continue to seethe until the federal government addresses the massacres,” Professor Ezeka said, his hoarse voice quickly fading.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Exasperated travelers seethed at airports for hours and sometimes had to wait a day for the next available flight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
"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
“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
He seethed when plum roles failed to arrive and was forced to follow “An Officer and a Gentleman” with a role in “Jaws 3-D,” a second sequel to Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2024
She seethed, eyes roving through the crowd, until she zeroed in on me.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
Novack and Aggrey, who are both 35, installed the sod in February 2023 with the help of landscapers Carlos Díaz and Miguel Garcia.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
In “Grass Breathing,” Mendieta, hidden beneath squares of sod, uses her own respiration to animate the earth above.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 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
Tall-grass prairie grew here until the mid-1800s, when the sod was first broken by the settler’s plow.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
He noted that the floor mat in the hall was sodden and that the door handle of the bathroom was on the floor in the hall.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
A million tons of sodden dirt avalanched down onto Riverside Drive from Elysian Park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 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
Sometimes you have to break away from heavy, sodden reality and go straight into joyful idiocy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Finally one of the fish worked its way out of the sodden newspaper and fell on the floor where it lay slimily in the dust.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Though seething about the penalty, Arteta took the opportunity during his post-match media conference to praise his side's defensive efforts.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Just below the surface, however, the soccer world was seething with discontent.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
In its first moments, the universe was a seething soup of elementary particles and energetic photons that would destroy any atom before it could form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
The Hearts captain, Lawrence Shankland, might have been seething about the late events at Fir Park, but for the microphones he stayed focused on the big prize.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
I imagined them seething with jealousy at our private, mother-daughter birthday party.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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.
