If you parboil food, especially vegetables, you boil it until it is partly cooked. Roughly chop and parboil the potatoes. to boil something until it is partly cooked (parboillir , from , from per- + bullire ; influenced by part)
To partially cook food by boiling briefly in water This may be done to longer cooking ingredients to make sure all ingredients are done at the same time such as in stir-fries
To boil a food briefly, until partially done A food might be parboiled before adding it to faster-cooking ingredients to insure all ingredients are evenly cooked