Other forms: simmering, simmered, simmers
To simmer is to cook something in liquid that is almost, but not quite, boiling. A few bubbles rising lazily, and no more.
The distinction from boiling matters in cooking, since a hard boil breaks food apart and a simmer keeps it whole, which is why stews and stocks are simmered for hours. Bring it to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, is one of the standard instructions in English recipes. The figurative sense is about anger held just below the surface, and simmering resentment is a fixed phrase. Simmer down means calm down.
1verbsimmerTo cook gently in liquid kept just below boiling.
“Let the sauce simmer for twenty minutes.”
Patternsimmer for + time · let sth simmer · bring to the boil, then simmer · simmer gently / on a low heat · (anger) simmer with
2verbfilledTo be filled with barely contained anger.
“He sat simmering at the far end of the table.”
Also accepted in games: simmering
SIMMER → a slow SUMMER afternoon in the pot
Like a quiet summer afternoon in the pot: warm, slow, a small bubble now and then, and nothing in a hurry.
hooks ontosummer
Middle English
simperen — to simmer
English, today
simmer
From alteration of dialectal simper, from Middle English simperen (“to simmer”), of possibly imitative origin. First attested in the intransitive sense. The noun is from the verb. late 15th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in In the Kitchen