Vapour

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈveɪpÉ™/

Alternative forms

• vapor US

Origin

From Old French, from Latin vapor ("steam, heat")

Full definition of vapour

Noun

1. Cloudy diffused matter such as mist, steam or fumes suspended in the air.
• 1892, James Yoxall, The Lonely Pyramid Chapter 5, 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.
2. The gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.
3. (obsolete) Wind; flatulence.
4. Something unsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
• Bible, James iv. 14For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
5. (archaic) Hypochondria; melancholy; the blues; hysteria, or other nervous disorder.
• Alexander Pope (1688-1744)a fit of vapours
6. (dated) Any medicinal agent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapour.

Derived terms

• vapour pressure
• vapour trail
• water vapour

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become vapour; to be emitted or circulated as vapour.
2. (transitive) To turn into vapour.to vapour away a heated fluid
• Ben JonsonHe'd laugh to see one throw his heart away,
  Another, sighing, vapour forth his soul.
3. (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.
4. To emit vapour or fumes.
• Francis BaconRunning waters vapour not so much as standing waters.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become vapour; to be emitted or circulated as vapour.
2. (transitive) To turn into vapour.
3. (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