vapor
a visible exhalation, such as fog, mist, steam, smoke, or noxious gas, diffused through or suspended in the air: The vapors rising from the bogs smelled muddy.
Physics. a gas at a temperature below its critical temperature.
a substance converted into a gaseous state for technical or medicinal uses.
a combination of gaseous particles of a substance and air.
vapors, Archaic.
harmful exhalations formerly supposed to be produced within the body, especially in the stomach.
mental or physical illness, such as depression or hypochondria, formerly supposed to result from such exhalations, especially in women.
the vapors. Often Facetious. a feeling of being overwhelmed with strong emotion: That guy gives the press the vapors every time he announces a new project.
Archaic.
a strange, senseless, or fantastic notion.
something insubstantial or transitory.
to cause to rise or pass off in, or as if in, vapor; vaporize.
Archaic. to affect with the vapors; depress.
to rise or pass off in the form of vapor.
to emit vapor or exhalations.
to talk or act grandiloquently, pompously, or boastfully; bluster.
Origin of vapor
1- Also especially British, va·pour .
Other words from vapor
- va·por·a·ble, adjective
- va·por·a·bil·i·ty [vey-per-uh-bil-i-tee], /ˌveɪ pər əˈbɪl ɪ ti/, noun
- va·por·er, noun
- va·por·less, adjective
- va·por·like, adjective
Words Nearby vapor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use vapor in a sentence
Warmer oceans and air increase the evaporation of water vapor into the air, fueling a more potent storm.
Slow, meandering hurricanes are often more dangerous—and they’re getting more common | Greta Moran | September 9, 2020 | Popular-ScienceThey are heating up so much that their rock turns to vapor as they fall.
Scientists Say: Asteroid, meteor and meteorite | Bethany Brookshire | September 7, 2020 | Science News For StudentsThe platinum generates heat by combusting any methanol vapor that comes in contact with it.
Methanol fuel gives this tiny beetle bot the freedom to roam | Carmen Drahl | August 19, 2020 | Science NewsThey then used vapor deposition to grow nanowires inside these pores made from perovskite, a type of photosensitive compound used in solar cells.
A New Bionic Eye Could Give Robots and the Blind 20/20 Vision | Edd Gent | May 22, 2020 | Singularity HubBattelle’s system turns a 35-percent solution of hydrogen peroxide into a vapor.
Tackling the novel coronavirus calls for novel ideas | Kathiann Kowalski | May 7, 2020 | Science News For Students
As a result, the vapor measurements Mahar obtained are likely the best-case scenario.
Back then there were no vapor cigarettes for you simulate smoking.
'Saved by the Bell' Star Dustin Diamond Doesn't Want to Be a Jerk Anymore | Kevin Fallon | August 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf you plan to take in vapor in such amounts, you have to get juice with a low nicotine content to avoid poisoning yourself.
And the business of science, medicine, and faith itself is to restore or at least to prop up hope, that most complex vapor.
The color palette in Batman Begins is something I brought to the party, too—that rusty, sodium-vapor color.
How ‘Transcendence’ Director Wally Pfister Became Christopher Nolan’s Secret Weapon | Andrew Romano | April 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTShould the vapor not condense well, the test-tube may be immersed in a glass of cold water.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddHe crouched, nerves and muscles tense, controled in spite of the torturous cloud of scalding vapor that pressed close to him.
An exceedingly few rays of the sun, concentrated by a burning mirror, will convert gold and platina into vapor.
Gospel Philosophy | J. H. WardNor would a planet, covered over for ages with a thick screen of vapor, be a novelty yet in the universe.
Gospel Philosophy | J. H. WardHe loosed the blankets from his shoulders, and floundering down the slope was lost in the vapor.
The Gold Trail | Harold Bindloss
British Dictionary definitions for vapor
/ (ˈveɪpə) /
the US spelling of vapour
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for vapor
[ vā′pər ]
The gaseous state of a substance that is normally liquid or solid at room temperature, such as water that has evaporated into the air. See more at vapor pressure. See also water vapor.
A faintly visible suspension of fine particles of matter in the air, as mist, fumes, or smoke.
A mixture of fine droplets of a substance and air, as the fuel mixture of an internal-combustion engine.
usage For vapor
Other words from vapor
- vaporize verb
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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