What does broil mean?
Broil is a verb meaning to cook food by subjecting it directly to intense radiant heat — most commonly under an oven's overhead heating element, though historically over live coals or an open flame. In North American kitchens, broiling is prized for producing fast browning, charring, and caramelization on foods like steaks, fish fillets, vegetables, and cheese-topped dishes, making it the counterpart to grilling done indoors. The word belongs primarily to everyday culinary register rather than formal prose. Interestingly, "broil" has a second, now largely obsolete life: from Middle English through the eighteenth century it meant to engage in a noisy brawl, and the noun "a broil" described just such a fracas — a sense preserved in the related word "embroil," which survives in common use. This double history makes "broil" one of those kitchen words whose origins are surprisingly rowdy. For modern readers, the essential meaning is simple: direct, fierce, top-down heat applied quickly to brown or char food.
To cook by direct exposure to radiant heat, especially under an oven's upper heating element or over a flame.
"Broil the peppers until their skins blister and blacken."
Standard in American English; British speakers typically say "grill."
(Archaic) A noisy quarrel or brawl; a state of confusion or tumult.
"The tavern dissolved into a broil when the dispute over dice could not be settled."
This sense is obsolete in ordinary modern usage.
Applies only to the archaic noun sense meaning a brawl or commotion; rarely encountered in contemporary English.
"The chroniclers recorded the many broils of the medieval court."
The same word that puts dinner on the table once meant throwing punches: "broil" originally referred to a drunken brawl before it ever referred to your oven.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of broil
The cooking sense of "broil" entered Middle English around the fourteenth century from Old French "bruler," meaning to burn or scorch, itself of Germanic origin related to words for burning. A separate but similarly spelled verb, from Old French "brouiller," meant to mix up or disturb, giving rise to the archaic sense of a brawl or quarrel and to its surviving descendant "embroil." Over time the cooking sense prevailed in everyday English, especially in American usage, while the quarrel sense faded into literary history.
Related word forms
How broil is actually used
As a cooking term, "broil" is standard in North American English; British cooks use "grill" instead, so "broil" can mark a speaker as American. The noun sense meaning a brawl is archaic and now appears only in historical or literary contexts. The verb carries no strong connotation beyond implying quick, high-heat cooking.
Easily confused with broil
"Boil" means to cook in bubbling liquid at high temperature, whereas "broil" means to cook with direct dry heat from above or below.
In American English "grill" usually implies cooking on a grate over open flame while "broil" means cooking beneath an oven's overhead heating element; in British English the two words' roles differ, with "grill" covering what Americans call broiling.