lance the boil

lance the boil

To take a decisive and dramatic action that resolves or puts an end to a problematic, troublesome, or unpleasant situation. It's high time that we as citizens use the power of our vote to lance the boil of corruption in Washington! If we can't speak openly about employees being mistreated, we'll never be able to lance the boil for good.
See also: boil, lance
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lance the boil

take decisive action to put an end to an undesirable situation.
The underlying image is of a boil being cut open with a lancet or other sharp surgical instrument, to release its pus.
2003 Yorkshire Post Today Mr Conway … said…it was time for Mr Duncan Smith to ‘lance the boil’ in his leadership. ‘There's a growing feeling of “it's got to end”.’
See also: boil, lance
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • twist in the wind
  • twist in the wind, be left to
  • twist slowly in the wind
  • get (someone) out of (something)
  • get out of
  • get (oneself) out of (something)
  • be worse off
  • get nasty
  • PITA
  • extenuating circumstances
References in periodicals archive
That would lance the boil and get the DUP back on board - and, bingo, there's a Brexit deal the EU could accept and one MPs other than headbanger Tory Brexiteers can live with.
His provocative speech probably did more to lance the boil of racism than to provoke it, though it's hard to believe that was his intention.
We must take a bold step further and lance the boil. Everybody agrees that peace is essential to the welfare of any nation.
As the last in a long line of Conservative Party leaders to face incessant parliamentary pressure from its strident, anti-EU minority, he hoped to lance the boil. He expected to win, not just out of confidence in his own abilities as an orator and politician, but by rational argument.
The campaigns, and results, were undoubtedly divisive - the binary nature of a plebiscite forces the abandonment of nuance and doubt from the debate - but as difficult as that has been, it was likely a necessary evil, to lance the boil and move on.
"We've learnt to bicker at a low level the entire way through, and that tends to lance the boil that could turn into a proper fight," admits Dara.
So perhaps they should lance the boil by becoming rookies in the next series of Successville?
"There are many who believe that [Syriza] can lance the boil of clientelism," the political commentator and author Stavros Lygeros told DW.
Can United lance the boil of discontent for a second time by bringing good players in?
Ed Miliband must lance the boil. He should open a new inquiry immediately.
"Hugh Trevor-Roper's The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History (Yale UP) was written in the 1970s to lance the boil of Scottish devolution.
Last night he said: "We have to lance the boil, we have to make a change, unite the group and run it in a different way.
After skewering General Motors (Roger and Me), the National Rifle Association (Bowling for Columbine), and the war in Iraq (Fahrenheit 9/11), Michael Moore has decided to lance the boil of U.S.
Saul and Crumb are too unapologetic in the offense their work may give, to women and African Americans in particular, to be offered center stage, although, like artists from Robert Colescott to Kara Walker, they have used humor to lance the boil of repressed racial and sexual attitudes which was festering long before any of them appeared on the scene.
In order to lance the boil of corruption and rid politics of the pus that has accumulated, the ruling and opposition parties must dedicate themselves to getting to the bottom of this scandal.