vapour
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Alternative forms [edit]
- vapor (US)
Etymology [edit]
From Old French, from Latin vapor (“steam, heat”)
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
vapour (countable and uncountable; plural vapours)
- The gas phase component of a liquid or solid.
- The gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
the gas phase component of a liquid or solid
See also [edit]
Verb [edit]
vapour (third-person singular simple present vapours, present participle vapouring, simple past and past participle vapoured)
- (intransitive) To become vapour; to be emitted or circulated as vapour.
- (transitive) To turn into vapour.
- to vapour away a heated fluid
- Ben Jonson
- He'd laugh to see one throw his heart away, / Another, sighing, vapour forth his soul.
- (intransitive) To use insubstantial language; to boast or bluster.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Bisara of Pooree’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005, p. 172:
- 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.
- 1904, “Saki”, ‘Reginald's Christmas Revel’, Reginald:
- 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.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 513:
- 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.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Bisara of Pooree’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005, p. 172:
Translations [edit]
intransitive: to become vapour; to be emitted or circulated as vapour
transitive: to turn into vapour
intransitive: to use insubstantial language; to boast or bluster
Verb [edit]
vapour (third-person singular simple present vapours, present participle vapouring, simple past and past participle vapoured)
- (intransitive) To become vapour; to be emitted or circulated as vapour.
- (transitive) To turn into vapour.
- (intransitive) To use insubstantial language; to boast or bluster.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Bisara of Pooree’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005, p. 172:
- 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.
- 1904, “Saki”, ‘Reginald's Christmas Revel’, Reginald:
- 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.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Bisara of Pooree’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005, p. 172: