Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ROIL
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Y'all, I have stirred the pot a time or two, and I don't recommend it!
To stir the pot is to roil things: to make things (and people) all vexed, disturbed, chaotic, and agitated.
Left to roil uncontrollably, things might morph into a m___str__: a situation that's a huge, violent, chaotic mess, like a whirlpool. Can you recall that word?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"ROIL"
We're not sure where the word "roil" comes from, but we've been using it since about 1590.
To roil liquid things is to stir them up, making them muddy, dirty, or choppy.
And to roil situations is to stir them up, making them chaotic, confusing, and full of strong emotions.
Situations can also roil by themselves, meaning they become stirred up: chaotic, confusing, and full of strong emotions.
Pronunciation:
ROY ul
(the same as "royal")
Part of speech:
Verb, both the transitive kind ("the headlines roiled the stock market") and the intransitive kind ("the stock market roiled for days").
Other forms:
The common ones are just "roiled" and "roiling."
Sometimes we'll use "roil" as a noun to mean "a stirred-up mass of anything, such as water" or "a state of chaos and confusion," as in, "The breakup left her heart in a roil for months."
And occasionally we use "roily" and "roiliness," which both strike me as funny.
How to use it:
With the tiny, powerful word "roil," you convey this entire idea: that a situation started out pretty calm, like a clean-looking pond, but then someone (or something) suddenly poked a stick into it, stirring up all the mud on the bottom, dirtying the whole pond, and sending all the water crashing and sloshing against itself in a wild mess.
That's the image you call to mind when you say that something roils: "his stomach roiled," "the forum roiled with outrage."
Or, you say that something roils something else: "jealousy roiled their relationship," "rumors and anger roiled the eighth grade," "injustice and economic disparity roiled the city," "his insane decisions roiled the nation."
Often we flip those phrases around and talk about things roiled by other things: "a relationship roiled by jealousy," "a middle school roiled by rumors," etc.
Both "roiled" and "roiling" make handy adjectives. Talk about roiled markets, roiled lives, a roiling industry, a roiling White House, etc.
examples:
"But anger roiled in my belly, and after I boarded the bus back to the apartment that day I was seized by another idea."
— Cristina Henríquez, The Book of Unknown Americans, 2014
"Technology is always roiling the music world. At the end of the 19th century, publishers worried that the phonograph would slash sales of sheet music, and it eventually did. But music flourished anyway, as the phonograph itself helped give birth to new genres, such as jazz."
— Wade Roush, Scientific American, 1 March 2019
has this page helped you understand "roil"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "roil" without saying "churn" or "agitate."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "(A certain place or situation is) roiling with _____."
Concrete example: "I find hot tubs gross. I don't want to get in a big bubbly bucket roiling with germs and body parts."
Abstract example: "Television taught me to expect that high school would be roiling with gossip and drama. Ours was pretty peaceful."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
This month, we're playing "What's the Word?"
On Reddit, r/whatstheword is a community of about 55,000 members: folks who gather to help each other out when they can't think of a particular word. "It's on the tip of my tongue," they say. Or, "This word might not even exist. Help!"
In each issue this month, check out a post from the community, and see if you can come up with the word or phrase in question. We'll work our way from relatively easy to extremely hard questions as the month goes on.
From the previous issue: A community member asked, "Aerial, Nautical, _____? ‘Aerial’ means something in the sky, ‘nautical’ means something in the sea, but what is a similar word for something on the land?"
Answer: terrestrial.
Try this today: A community member asked, "What’s the word for when someone does a different job, typically a hobby, at night? Like ‘During the day I am a clerk, but I _______ as a photographer.’ I think it has 'night' in it, sort of like 'I night cover as a photographer' or something."
I'll share the answer in the upcoming issue, but if you can't wait, you can view the whole original thread here.
review this word:
1. A near opposite of ROIL is
A. SOOTHE.
B. STARTLE.
C. SIMPLIFY.
2. Writing for Slate, Willa Paskin notes that a key element in the show Breaking Bad is "roiling moral confusion," with a main character who wasn't just a bad guy getting worse but a complex and sympathetic figure, with many factors that "_____."
A. crossed the wires
B. muddied the waters
C. illuminated the shades of gray
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Y'all, I have stirred the pot a time or two, and I don't recommend it! We're not sure where the word "roil" comes from, but we've been using it since about 1590.
"But anger roiled in my belly, and after I boarded the bus back to the apartment that day I was seized by another idea."
Explain the meaning of "roil" without saying "churn" or "agitate."
Fill in the blanks: "(A certain place or situation is) roiling with _____."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. A near opposite of ROIL is
|