vapor

plural vapors · alternative Commonwealth vapour

1. UScountableuncountableCloudy diffused matter such as mist, steam or fumes suspended in the air.

   A mild vapour is thrown out, and not a hot steam; the invention appears to control the amount of the vapor, and and ^([sic]) even the force of the fire which produces it.

   1847, editorial staff, “Evaporation Grate”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68

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   The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Drifts of yellow vapour, fiery, parching, stinging, filled the air.

   1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid

2. UScountableuncountableThe gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.

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   Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.

   2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

3. UScountableidiomaticuncountableSomething insubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.

   I am at this present very sick of my little vapour of fame.

   1781, Horace Walpole, " "

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   For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 4:14

   The press operates as a safety-valve for the vapor of popular ebullision.

   1822, Charles Perkins, An Oration, page 19

   The previous question had turned the attention to life as something peculiarly frail, and as of such a nature that no calculation could be based on its permanence. This expression gives a reason for that, to wit, that it is a mere vapor.

   1875, Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, page 80

   Here we can explain only in these broad outlines why the asking of the question of being is in itself through and through historical, and why, accordingly, our question as to whether being will remain a mere vapor for us or become the destiny of the West is anything but an exaggeration and a rhetorical figure.

   1999, Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, page 50

4. UScountabledateduncountableAny medicinal agent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapour.

   The physician can now prescribe medicinal vapors to be dropped on some cotton placed inside the inhaler.

   1944, Quarterly Review of Otorhinolaryngology and Broncho-esophagology, page 68

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   Sulphurous fumes have also been recommended, as well as diffusing a variety of vapors in the apartment of the patient; on their beneficial or injurious effects we are unable to speak.

   1836, Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Charles Cowan, Pathological Researches on Phthisis, page 287

   Hence the vapor, so useful in expanding the compressed tissues and enabling the air to permeate and expand the contracted parenchyma in consumption, causes a sensation of great fatigue in asthma.

   1854 November, Samuel A. Cartwright, “The Case of a Lady in a sugar-house, with Aphonic, Haemorrhagic, Tubercular Phthisis in the Softening State”, in Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 51, number 14, page 275

   Professor Matthews has at length the pleasure, after much unaboidable delay, of respectfully announcin to the Faculty, that he is prepared to fill their prescriptions by any practicable formula, in the use of his new method of applying medicinal vapors to the lungs, air-passages, & c., by means of the Multiform Fumigator .

   1861, Charles Mathews, On fumigation of the lungs, throat, &c, page 1

5. USarchaiccountablein pluraluncountableHypochondria; melancholy; the blues; hysteria, or other nervous disorder.

   Jan 13, 1732, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift He talks me into a fit of vapours twice or thrice a week.

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   [T]he Horror of dying in ſuch a miſerable Condition rais'd Vapours into my Head vvith the meer Apprehenſions; and in theſe Hurries of my Soul, I knovv not vvhat my Tongue might expreſs: but it vvas rather Exclamation, ſuch as, Lord! vvhat a miſerable Creature am I?

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 106

   She made several gulps and controlled her breath. She released her grip on Podson and stared at him without recognition. Podson went on patting her reassuringly, relieved from administering first aid to an attack of the vapours.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 188

   "Shows you what a modern young woman can come to after all, doesn't it? Screaming, and collapsing with the vapours - Hell!"

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 70

6. UScountableobsoleteuncountableWind; flatulence.

   The surcharge of the stomack from a gross vapour, and from the poise of some outward weight, are alike

   1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC

present singular third person vapors · participle present vaporing · participle past vapored · past vapored · alternative Commonwealth vapour

1. USintransitiveTo become vapor; to be emitted or circulated as vapor.
2. UStransitiveTo turn into vapor.

   to vapor away a heated fluid

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   He'd […]laugh to see one throw his heart away, / Another, sighing, vapour forth his soul.

   1617, Ben Jonson, Lovers Made Men

3. USTo emit vapor or fumes.

   Running waters vapour not so much as standing waters.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

4. USintransitiveTo use insubstantial language; to boast or bluster.

   […] an amusing character all but extinct now, but occasionally to be encountered […] vaporing in the groggeries along the tow-path.

   1924, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.

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   He vapoured, and fretted, and fumed, and trotted up and down, and tried to make himself pleasing in Miss Hollis's big, quiet, grey eyes, and failed.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 172

   then the Major gave us a graphic account of a struggle he had with a wounded bear. I privately wished that the bears would win sometimes on these occasions; at least they wouldn't go vapouring about it afterwards.

   1904, “Saki”, ‘Reginald's Christmas Revel’, Reginald

   He felt he would start vapouring with devotion if this went on, so he bruptly took his leave with a cold expression on his face which dismayed her for she thought that it was due to distain for her artistic opinions.

   1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 513

5. UStransitiveTo give (someone) the vapors; to depress, to bore.

   “I only mean,” cried she, giddily, “that he might have some place a little more pleasant to live in, for really that old moat and draw-bridge are enough to vapour him to death […].”

   1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.vi.9