indicating a volatile situation in which people are very excited or angry
streets aboil with activists
Something's aboil in America.
aboil in American English
(əˈbɔil)
adverb or adjective
1.
boiling
Make the tea as soon as the water is aboil
2.
in a state of excited activity
The street was aboil with Saturday shoppers
Word origin
[1855–60; a-1 + boil1]This word is first recorded in the period 1855–60. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: boilerplate, keyword, kickoff, output, pipelinea- is a reduced form of the Old English preposition on, meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,” preserved before a noun in a prepositionalphrase, forming a predicate adjective or an adverbial element (afoot; abed; ashore; aside; away), or before an adjective (afar; aloud; alow), as a moribund prefix with a verb (acknowledge), and in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing (set the bells aringing); and added to a verb stem with the force of a present participle (ablaze; agape; aglow; astride; and originally, awry)