Definify.com
Definition 2024
vapour
vapour
English
Alternative forms
- vapor (US)
Noun
vapour (countable and uncountable, plural vapours)
- Cloudy diffused matter such as mist, steam or fumes suspended in the air.
- 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
- 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.
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- The gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.
- (obsolete) Wind; flatulence.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
- Something unsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
- Bible, James iv. 14
- For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
- Bible, James iv. 14
- (archaic) Hypochondria; melancholy; the blues; hysteria, or other nervous disorder.
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
- a fit of vapours
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
- (dated) Any medicinal agent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapour.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Brit. Pharm to this entry?)
Derived terms
Translations
steam — see steam
vapor — see vapor
See also
Verb
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:
- To emit vapour or fumes.
- Francis Bacon
- Running waters vapour not so much as standing waters.
- Francis Bacon
Translations
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
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: