make someone's blood boil

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

make someone's blood boil (third-person singular simple present makes someone's blood boil, present participle making someone's blood boil, simple past and past participle made someone's blood boil)

1. (idiomatic) To cause a person to feel angry or very annoyed, especially in situation in which one cannot fully display that feeling to others.
   • 1880, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 21, in Love and Life:

     Dove says it makes her blood boil to see the way the poor young gentleman is treated.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter 23, in The Voyage Out:

     The hypocritical smugness of the English makes my blood boil.

   • 1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 4, in Man Size:

     Most men gave him a wide berth, and for the sake of peace accepted sneers and insults that made the blood boil.

   • 1989 June 25, Jacquie Herz, “Beware: Teen-Age Driver, Nervous Mother”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 July 2011:

     Yet, I also know how intimidating it is to have a tailgater behind; it makes my blood boil.

   • 2008 Aug. 21, Joe Klein, "Where's Obama's Passion?, Time:

     A day earlier, he had said wage disparities between genders made his "blood boil".

Translations

cause a person to feel angry

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 使某人火冒三丈 (shǐ mǒurén huǒmàosānzhàng)

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: saada jonkun sappi kiehumaan, saada jonkun veri kiehumaan
• French: insupporter (fr), exaspérer (fr), (informal) beurrer la raie (fr), (vulgar) casser les couilles (fr), (colloquial) prendre le chou (fr), (colloquial) pomper le dard (fr)
• German: jmds. Blut in Wallung geraten lassen
• Hindi: ख़ून खौलना (xūn khaulnā)
• Russian: довести́ до бе́лого кале́ния (ru) pf (dovestí do bélovo kalénija), (colloquial) доста́ть (ru) pf (dostátʹ)
• Swedish: få någons blod att koka
• Tagalog: kumukulo ang dugo

See also

• make someone's blood run cold