moisture

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English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French moistour (“moisture, dampness, wetness”). Compare French moiteur.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɔɪstʃɚ/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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moisture (usually uncountable, plural moistures)

  1. That which moistens or makes damp or wet; exuding fluid; liquid in small quantity.
    drops / beads of moisture
    • c. 1590 William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act II, Scene 1,[1]
      I cannot weep; for all my body’s moisture
      Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart:
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Luke 8.6,[2]
      And some [seed] fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
    • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter 7,[3]
      […] Nicholas Nickleby’s eyes were dimmed with a moisture that might have been taken for tears.
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, London: Constable, Chapter 3, p. 39,[4]
      […] as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth.
    • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 6, p. 65,[5]
      The sage—low-growing and shrubby—could hold its place on the mountain slopes and on the plains, and within its small gray leaves it could hold moisture enough to defy the thieving winds.
  2. The state of being moist.
    Synonyms: dampness, humidity, wetness
    • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, Century 4, p. 84,[6]
      […] all Exclusion of Open Aire, (which is euer Predatory) maintaineth the Body in his first Freshnesse, and Moisture:
    • 1643, John Denham, Coopers Hill, p. 7,[7]
      Such was the discord, which did first disperse
      Forme, order, beauty through the universe;
      While drynesse moisture, coldnesse heat resists,
      All that we have, and that we are subsists:
    • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 7, I.1, p. 39,[8]
      [The organs of touch are excited] by the unceasing variations of the heat, moisture, and pressure of the atmosphere;
  3. (medicine) Skin moisture noted as dry, moist, clammy, or diaphoretic as part of the skin signs assessment.

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