boil-off

[ boil-awf, -of ]

noun

1. Rocketry. any vapor loss from the oxidizer or fuel in a rocket during countdown.
2. Also called boil·ing-off [boi, -ling-, awf, -, of]. Textiles.
   1. the process of degumming silk.
   2. the process of removing sizing, wax, impurities, etc., from fabric by scouring.

boil off

verb

1. to remove or be removed (from) by boiling

   to boil off impurities

Word History and Origins

Origin of boil-off¹

First recorded in 1955–60; noun use of verb phrase boil off

Example Sentences

Given the chance, liquid hydrogen will "boil-off" and escape as a gas - potentially becoming a hazard.

From BBC

Likewise, while current MRI machines do use up to 1000 liters of helium in their cryostats, "they do not let it evaporate as they did a decade ago; they recycle it. Therefore there is no need to regularly fill these scanners," which are known as "'zero boil-off' magnets."

From Salon

ULA will also get $2 million for technology to reduce cryogenic fuel boil-off and $1.9 million to demonstrate the midair retrieval of a vehicle coming back to our planet from orbital velocity.

From Scientific American

This is a zone where there can be sufficient solar heating to cause the ‘boil-off’, or sublimation, of solid ice into the vacuum of space.

From Scientific American

The current data seem to suggest that this boil-off, like that of a cometary nucleus, is the more likely culprit for Ceres’s watery outbursts – coinciding with its closest approaches to the Sun.

From Scientific American