To cook food with direct high heat from above, or to involve someone in a heated conflict or argument.
From Old French 'bruiller' meaning to burn or broil, possibly from Latin 'burere' (to burn). The word entered English around the 14th century with cooking meanings first, then figurative meanings.
The verb 'broil' is one of the few cooking terms that completely inverted—it originally meant to burn or char meat, but evolved to mean precise heat control, the opposite of its origins.
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