Vapor

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vapor \Va"por\, n. [OE. vapour, OF. vapour, vapor, vapeur, F.
     vapeur, L. vapor; probably for cvapor, and akin to Gr. ?
     smoke, ? to breathe forth, Lith. kvepti to breathe, smell,
     Russ. kopote fine soot. Cf. {Vapid}.] [Written also
     {vapour}.]
     [1913 Webster]


     1. (Physics) Any substance in the gaseous, or aeriform,
        state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of a
        liquid or solid.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The term vapor is sometimes used in a more extended
           sense, as identical with gas; and the difference
           between the two is not so much one of kind as of
           degree, the latter being applied to all permanently
           elastic fluids except atmospheric air, the former to
           those elastic fluids which lose that condition at
           ordinary temperatures. The atmosphere contains more or
           less vapor of water, a portion of which, on a reduction
           of temperature, becomes condensed into liquid water in
           the form of rain or dew. The vapor of water produced by
           boiling, especially in its economic relations, is
           called steam.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 Vapor is any substance in the gaseous condition
                 at the maximum of density consistent with that
                 condition. This is the strict and proper meaning
                 of the word vapor.                 --Nichol.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. In a loose and popular sense, any visible diffused
        substance floating in the atmosphere and impairing its
        transparency, as smoke, fog, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The vapour which that fro the earth glood [glided].
                                                    --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy wind
              fulfilling his word.                  --Ps. cxlviii.
                                                    8.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Wind; flatulence. [Obs.] --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Something unsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal
        fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that
              appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
              away.                                 --James iv.
                                                    14.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. pl. An old name for hypochondria, or melancholy; the
        blues. "A fit of vapors." --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Pharm.) A medicinal agent designed for administration in
        the form of inhaled vapor. --Brit. Pharm.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Vapor bath}.
        (a) A bath in vapor; the application of vapor to the body,
            or part of it, in a close place; also, the place
            itself.
        (b) (Chem.) A small metallic drying oven, usually of
            copper, for drying and heating filter papers,
            precipitates, etc.; -- called also {air bath}. A
            modified form is provided with a jacket in the outside
            partition for holding water, or other volatile liquid,
            by which the temperature may be limited exactly to the
            required degree.
  
     {Vapor burner}, a burner for burning a vaporized hydrocarbon.
        
  
     {Vapor density} (Chem.), the relative weight of gases and
        vapors as compared with some specific standard, usually
        hydrogen, but sometimes air. The vapor density of gases
        and vaporizable substances as compared with hydrogen, when
        multiplied by two, or when compared with air and
        multiplied by 28.8, gives the molecular weight.
  
     {Vapor engine}, an engine worked by the expansive force of a
        vapor, esp. a vapor other than steam.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vapor \Va"por\, v. t.
     To send off in vapor, or as if in vapor; as, to vapor away a
     heated fluid. [Written also {vapour}.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           He'd laugh to see one throw his heart away,
           Another, sighing, vapor forth his soul.  --B. Jonson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vapor \Va"por\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Vapored}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Vaporing}.] [From {Vapor}, n.: cf. L. vaporare.] [Written
     also {vapour}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. To pass off in fumes, or as a moist, floating substance,
        whether visible or invisible, to steam; to be exhaled; to
        evaporate.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To emit vapor or fumes. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Running waters vapor not so much as standing waters.
                                                    --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To talk idly; to boast or vaunt; to brag.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Poets used to vapor much after this manner.
                                                    --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We vapor and say, By this time Matthews has beaten
              them.                                 --Walpole.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vapor
       n 1: a visible suspension in the air of particles of some
            substance [syn: {vapour}]
       2: the process of becoming a vapor [syn: {vaporization}, {vaporisation},
           {vapour}, {evaporation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  161 Moby Thesaurus words for "vapor":
     Barnumize, London fog, London special, Old Faithful, air,
     airy nothing, apparition, autism, babble, blabber, blather, blow,
     bluff, bluster, bluster and bluff, boast, boiling water, bombast,
     bounce, brag, brainchild, breathe out, bubble, bull, bullshit,
     bully, chimera, cloud, daydream, deception, delirium,
     deluded belief, delusion, depression, dereism, distemper,
     draw the longbow, dream, dream vision, dreamland, dreamworld,
     drisk, drivel, drizzling mist, drool, eidolon, emit, ether,
     evacuate, exhalation, exhale, exhaust, expire, false belief, fancy,
     fantasque, fantasy, fiction, figment, film, flourish, fog,
     frost smoke, fume, gabble, gas, gasconade, gauze, geyser, gibber,
     gibble-gabble, give off, give out, give vent to, hallucination,
     haze, hector, hot spring, hot water, hypochondria, hysteria,
     idle fancy, ignis fatuus, illusion, imagery, imagination,
     imagining, inflate, insubstantial image, intimidate, invention,
     jabber, lay it on, let out, maggot, make-believe, misbelief,
     misconception, mist, morbidity, myth, nervousness,
     open the floodgates, open the sluices, out-herod Herod, pea soup,
     pea-soup fog, peasouper, phantasm, phantom, piffle, pile it on,
     pipe dream, pontificate, prate, prattle, puff, rage, rant, rattle,
     rave, reek, rheuminess, roister, rollick, romance, self-deceit,
     self-deception, self-delusion, shadow, sick fancy, slang, smog,
     smoke, speak for Buncombe, spirit, splutter, sputter, steam, storm,
     swagger, swashbuckle, talk big, talk highfalutin, talk nonsense,
     the pip, thermae, thick-coming fancies, thin air, throw off, trick,
     trip, twaddle, twattle, vaunt, vision, waffle, whim, whimsy,
     wildest dreams, wrong impression