Sekirov Dictionary

vapour

UK /ˈveɪpə/US /ˈveɪpɚ/

noun 6
verb 5
forms 3

noun6

•
Cloudy 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
The gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.
•
(old-fashioned) Any medicinal agent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapour.
- 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
•
Something insubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
- For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. — 1611
•
[in the plural] (no longer used) Hypochondria; 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.
•
(no longer used) Wind; flatulence.
- The surcharge of the stomack from a gross vapour, and from the poise of some outward weight, are alike — 1605

verb5

To become vapor; to be emitted or circulated as vapor.
•
To turn into vapor.
- He'd […]laugh to see one throw his heart away, / Another, sighing, vapour forth his soul. — 1617
•
To emit vapor or fumes.
- Running waters vapour not so much as standing waters. — 1627
•
To use insubstantial language; to boast or bluster.
- 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
•
To 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

forms

vapoured · vapouring · vapours

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