seethe

verb \ ˈsēṯẖ \

Updated on: 18 Apr 2018

seethed; seething

transitive verb

1 archaic : boil, stew

2 : to soak or saturate in a liquid

intransitive verb

1 archaic : boil

2 a : to be in a state of rapid agitated movement

b : to churn or foam as if boiling

3 : to suffer violent internal excitement

seethe with jealousy

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Examples of seethe in a Sentence

He seethed at his brother's success.
We found ourselves in the middle of a seething crowd.

Recent Examples of seethe from the Web

Greer seethes after her pothead parents don’t fill out her Yale financial-aid form correctly, thus consigning her to non-Ivy exile.

— clare mchugh, Time, "Meg Wolizter Explores Feminism and Friendship in The Female Persuasion," 5 Apr. 2018
The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar Fifty years ago this week, after the April 4 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., parts of Cincinnati seethed with anger, teetering on the brink of violence for four days.

— mark curnutte, Cincinnati.com, "A decade-by-decade look at how Avondale came back after the 1968 riots," 4 Apr. 2018
Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s seething anger, in contrast to Mr Mandela’s famed forgiveness, increasingly came to define her.

— The Economist, "Winnie Madikizela-Mandela leaves behind a complicated legacy," 3 Apr. 2018
USA TODAY Sports TORONTO - The free-agent market was a dud this winter, leaving Major League Baseball players and their agents seething.

— bob nightengale, USA TODAY, "MLB salaries 2018: A 3.5% raise for average major leaguer - but future commitments dipping," 28 Mar. 2018
The passion seething in Eddie Corbone’s world is not strictly of the romantic variety, and much of it is misdirected.

— matthew j. palm, OrlandoSentinel.com, "'A View From the Bridge' boils with the intensity of all-too-human weakness," 24 Mar. 2018
This ended with a mighty two-handed stick whack of the goal post by a seething Drew Doughty.

— curtis zupke, latimes.com, "Dion Phaneuf scores in debut, but Kings run out of steam in 3-1 loss to Penguins," 16 Feb. 2018
Lawmakers there have been seething over Facebook, Google, and Twitter since last fall, when the panel grilled those tech giants’ lawyers about another issue— Russian propaganda that spread on their platforms around the 2016 election.

— washington post, BostonGlobe.com, "Congress wants to add Google and Twitter to Facebook privacy inquiry," 26 Mar. 2018
Government officials have been chased out of town by seething crowds.

— drew hinshaw, WSJ, "Islamic State Faction in Nigeria Follows Boko Haram’s Playbook: Kidnapping Schoolgirls," 18 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'seethe.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of seethe

Middle English sethen, from Old English sēothan; akin to Old High German siodan to seethe and probably to Old Lithuanian siausti (it) storms, rages

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

See Words from the same year