vapor

[vey-per]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR vapor ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a visible exhalation, as fog, mist, steam, smoke, or noxious gas, diffused through or suspended in the air: the vapors rising from the bogs.

Physics. a gas at a temperature below its critical temperature.

a substance converted into vapor for technical or medicinal uses.

a combination of a vaporized substance and air.

gaseous particles of drugs that can be inhaled as a therapeutic agent.

Archaic.

a strange, senseless, or fantastic notion.
something insubstantial or transitory.

vapors, Archaic.

mental depression or hypochondria.
injurious exhalations formerly supposed to be produced within the body, especially in the stomach.

verb (used with object)

to cause to rise or pass off in, or as if in, vapor; vaporize.

Archaic. to affect with vapors; depress.

verb (used without object)

to rise or pass off in the form of vapor.

to emit vapor or exhalations.

to talk or act grandiloquently, pompously, or boastfully; bluster.

Also especially British, va·pour.

Origin of vapor

1325–75; Middle English vapour < Latin vapor steam

Related formsva·por·a·ble, adjectiveva·por·a·bil·i·ty, nounva·por·er, nounva·por·less, adjectiveva·por·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for vapor

condensation, smoke, gas, fog, moisture, smog, steam, effluvium, dew, breath, haze, exhalation, miasma, reek, dampness

Examples from the Web for vapor

Contemporary Examples of vapor

As a result, the vapor measurements Mahar obtained are likely the best-case scenario.
Oil Tankers Leaking into Seattle’s Water
Bill Conroy
October 13, 2014
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
If you plan to take in vapor in such amounts, you have to get juice with a low nicotine content to avoid poisoning yourself.
This Is Your E-Cigarette on Drugs
Daniel Genis
July 28, 2014
We feel the pull between life as painful reality—and forgotten wisps of vapor.
10 Best Plays of the Year: Richard III, No Man’s Land, and More
Janice Kaplan
December 27, 2013
On the balcony of the chamber, I came across Ilona Orshansky, the owner of Williamsburg's Vapor Lounge New York.
New York’s Nanny-State E-Cig Ban
Olivia Nuzzi
December 20, 2013

Historical Examples of vapor

An embarrassed silence fell like a vapor over the assemblage.
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown
The air of Berlin was cool and the excess of vapor had been frozen out of it.
City of Endless Night
Milo Hastings
The vapor from our nostrils froze in masses of ice upon our beards.
The Long Labrador Trail
Dillon Wallace
A simple experiment will show that no bacteria will exist in that vapor.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 417
Various
Mrs. Alexander smiled at him across the vapor from the kettle.
Alexander's Bridge and The Barrel Organ
Willa Cather and Alfred Noyes

British Dictionary definitions for vapor

vapor

noun

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

Word Origin and History for vapor

late 14c., from Anglo-French vapour, from Latin vaporem (nominative vapor) "exhalation, steam, heat," of unknown origin. Vapors "fit of fainting, hysteria, etc." is 1660s, from medieval notion of "exhalations" from the stomach or other organs affecting the brain.

vapor in Medicine

vapor

[vā′pər]

n.

Barely visible or cloudy diffused matter, such as mist, fumes, or smoke, suspended in the air.

The state of a substance that exists below its critical temperature and that may be liquefied by application of sufficient pressure.

The gaseous state of a substance that is liquid or solid under ordinary conditions.

The vaporized form of a medicinal preparation to be administered by inhalation.

A mixture of a vapor and air, as an explosive mixture of gasoline and air burned in an internal-combustion engine.

vapors Exhalations within an organ, especially the stomach, supposed to affect the mental or physical condition. No longer in technical use.

vapors A nervous disorder such as depression or hysteria. No longer in technical use.

vapor in Science

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.

Related formsvaporize verb