roiled; roiling; roils
2
: to move turbulently : be in a state of turbulence or agitation
conflicting emotions roiling inside her
Examples of roil in a Sentence
Financial markets have been roiled by the banking crisis.
the waters of the gulf tossed and roiled as the hurricane surged toward the shore
Recent Examples on the Web
When unrest roiled eastern Donbas in 2014, the state-run media told Ivan that the Ukrainian province wanted to secede but that Kyiv wasn’t letting it.
—
Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024
The launch came a day after the former president emerged unscathed from a second apparent assassination attempt, the latest shock to roil the presidential contest.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024
The 1964-1965 Fair came at a tumultuous time — mere months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, amid a fraught period in the Cold War, with the Vietnam War growing and Civil Rights tensions roiling the country.
—Ruth D. Nelson / Made By History, TIME, 13 Sep. 2024
At a much earlier time, 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the roiling primordial soup of protons, electrons, and photons cooled enough for the particles to team up and form neutral hydrogen atoms.
—Bydaniel Clery, science.org, 10 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for roil 
Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024
The launch came a day after the former president emerged unscathed from a second apparent assassination attempt, the latest shock to roil the presidential contest.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024
The 1964-1965 Fair came at a tumultuous time — mere months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, amid a fraught period in the Cold War, with the Vietnam War growing and Civil Rights tensions roiling the country.
—Ruth D. Nelson / Made By History, TIME, 13 Sep. 2024
At a much earlier time, 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the roiling primordial soup of protons, electrons, and photons cooled enough for the particles to team up and form neutral hydrogen atoms.
—Bydaniel Clery, science.org, 10 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for roil
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'roil.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near roil
Cite this Entry
“Roil.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/roil. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
roil
verb
ˈrȯi(ə)l 
sense 2 is also ˈrī(ə)l
1
: to make cloudy or muddy by stirring up
roil the water of a brook
2
: to rouse the anger of
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