Boyle

(boil), Robert 1627-1691.

Irish-born British physicist and chemist whose precise definitions of chemical elements and reactions began the separation of chemistry from alchemy.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Boyle

(bɔɪl)

1. (Biography) Robert. 1627–91, Irish scientist who helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy. He established that air has weight and studied the behaviour of gases; author of The Sceptical Chymist (1661)

2. (Biography) Danny. born 1956, English film director whose work includes Trainspotting (1996) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008); artistic director of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Boyle

(bɔɪl)

n.

Robert, 1627–91, English chemist and physicist.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Boyle - United States writer (1902-1992) Kay Boyle
	2.	Boyle - Irish chemist who established that air has weight and whose definitions of chemical elements and chemical reactions helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy (1627-1691) Robert Boyle

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References in classic literature

The first, who was a certain Captain Boyle, was of a bold and boyish type, dark, and with a sort of native heat in his face that did not belong to the atmosphere of the East, but rather to the ardors and ambitions of the West.

"Now, no other nation in the world could have done a thing like that," cried Captain Boyle, emphatically.

Captain Boyle frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion.

"I'm afraid I don't know much about Arab legends," said Boyle, rather stiffly.

"What a queer chap you are," said Boyle. "You talk as if a fellow could believe those fables."

The great Lord Hastings believed in science and study, as in other severe ideals of life, and had given much paternal advice on the point to young Boyle, whose appearances in that place of research were rather more intermittent.

Fisher peered for a moment into the shadow, and saw that it was Captain Boyle.

The next moment, rather to their surprise, the general reappeared and, remounting the steps, spoke a word or two to Boyle in his turn.

"I only hope Boyle is sticking to scientific researches," said Horne Fisher.

A few feet away was Boyle, almost as motionless, but supported on his hands and knees, and staring at the body.

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Boyle's law and the rest had to be discovered before the kinetic theory of gases became possible.

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In recent times ubiquity has not always been understood -- not even by Sir Boyle Roche, for example, who held that a man cannot be in two places at once unless he is a bird.

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