boiling point

boiling point

1. One's limit in patience, temper, or equanimity, after which one loses control of one's emotions. Likened to the temperature at which a given liquid boils. I was at my boiling point with the kids last night. All their fighting and shouting drove me crazy!
2. The point at which a situation becomes critical, calamitous, or uncontrollable. Tensions in the region are at their boiling point—full-scale war seems inevitable now.
See also: boiling, point
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

boiling point

A climax or crisis; a high degree of fury, excitement, or outrage. For example, The union's disgust with management has reached the boiling point. This metaphoric term alludes to the temperature at which water boils. [Second half of 1700s]
2. have a low boiling point. Become angry quite readily, as in Don't tease her anymore-she has a low boiling point. This phrase means that it takes less heat than usual for a boiling point to be reached. [First half of 1800s] Also see boil over; make one's blood boil.
See also: boiling, point
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • be written all over (one's) face
  • be written all over somebody's face
  • be written all over your face
  • at (one's) doorstep
  • at doorstep
  • at expense
  • at somebody's expense
  • at someone's expense
  • at (one's) expense
  • be remembered as (something)
References in periodicals archive
In the aforementioned project, a simple batch distillation, such as "Standard Test Method for Distillation of Petroleum Products at Atmospheric Pressure" (ASTM D86) [16], was used to separate wide industrial fractions (gasoline fractions, fuel oil fractions) into narrow boiling range fractions (or cuts), for which accurate average boiling points were needed to develop thermodynamic property correlations.
ASTM D86 DISTILLATION IN THE CONTEXT OF AVERAGE BOILING POINTS AS THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTY OF NARROW BOILING RANGE OIL FRACTIONS
Out of the 369 pure compounds and 15 mixture bioblendstocks in the database at the time of this analysis, 117 met the requirements for a melting point or cloud point below -10[degrees]C and a boiling point between 20[degrees]C and 165[degrees]C for gasoline-like fuels.
Selection Criteria and Screening of Potential Biomass-Derived Streams as Fuel Blendstocks for Advanced Spark-Ignition Engines
The ANN module was used in MATLAB R2007 software and the parameters of input order were the temperature of the first drop and 10, 50 and 90% distilled, the final boiling point, the density, residue and alcohol.
Application Self-organizing Map Type in a Study of the Profile of Gasoline C Commercialized in the Eastern and Northern Parana Regions
In ideal conditions, as water reaches the boiling point, it will rise to the red mark on the tube."
A historical journey in science education through role playing
"Waterless engine coolants have a boiling point far better suited to hot climates than water-based coolants," he said.
Waterless coolant takes the heat off for UAE drivers
Molecular Weight Substance Boiling Point 2 [H.sub.2] 18 [H.sub.2]O 28 [N.sub.2] 32 [O.sub.2] 44 C[O.sub.2] I then fill in the boiling points as follows.
Using the boiling point of water to learn about hydrogen bonds
Most stuff we come across on a daily basis has a boiling point and a freezing point.
Temperatures, pressures, & refrigerants
Think of the bubbles it creates that are constantly rising to the surface at boiling point.
How to enjoy a nice quiet cuppa; tricks of the trade
A CSI fan who stabbed his wife 21 times had "flipped" after reaching boiling point, a court heard.
Man who stabbed wife 'flipped'
We had been pointed towards one low boiling point fluid "operating" in Germany, but despite the glossy brochures we were unable to get the operators to say much about the actual effectiveness of the system without the use of the supplementary firing in its design.
Cool look at hot rocks
Over time, brake fluid absorbs water from the atmosphere, which reduces its effectiveness by lowering the boiling point. When brakes are used frequently, the fluid heats up dramatically and if it boils the brakes will suddenly stop working.
Stopping the silent killer in its tracks
Sydney, Oct 27(ANI): Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has predicted that tensions between the his team and the visiting England team will reach boiling point during next month's Ashes series.
'Sledging' will push Ashes series to 'boiling point': Johnson
After publishing the dossiers of few Albanian functionaries, in which they are accused of collaborating with the secret Yugoslavian services, BDI and PDSH worsened the rhetoric to a boiling point. Deputy PM Abdylaqim Ademi stated that they will no longer comment or respond to the accusations connected to the so-called secret dossiers and will leave this to the services.
What is behind the conflict?
A new study claims relationships are rockiest in the first month of the year and tempers reach boiling point on the last Monday of January.
DAY TO ARGUE
Special steel is a downstream steel product with a boiling point of 1,500 C with high pressure functioning to protect instruments in manufactured products like electronic goods, automotive products and metal based machines.
Mandan steel to produce special steel