vaporize
[vey-puh-rahyz]
- to cause to change into vapor.
Show More
- to become converted into vapor.
- to indulge in boastful talk; speak braggingly.
Show More
Also especially British, va·por·ise.
Origin of vaporize
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for vaporize
Contemporary Examples
Even the things he supposedly got out of this deal could vaporize.
Historical Examples
Nearly all liquids will vaporize if permitted to come into contact with air.
MotorsJames Slough Zerbe
I suppose, then, that only the rich and the aristocratic ‘vaporize’?
Unveiling a ParallelAlice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Marchant
They begin to heat, perhaps to heat irreversibly, and if they get out of control, they may vaporize.
The Star LordBoyd Ellanby
There is nothing more easy than to vaporize reality altogether, by way of exalting a philosophy.
The Philosophy of Natural TheologyWilliam Jackson
The crude petroleum is distilled as rapidly as possible with fire heat to vaporize off the naphthas and the burning oils.
Aviation EnginesVictor Wilfred Pag
vaporize
vaporise
- to change or cause to change into vapour or into the gaseous state
- to evaporate or disappear or cause to evaporate or disappear, esp suddenly
- to destroy or be destroyed by being turned into a gas as a result of extreme heat (for example, generated by a nuclear explosion)
Show More
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 vaporize
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
vaporize
(vā′pə-rīz′)- To convert or be converted into a vapor.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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.
Show More
Usage: The words vapor and steam usually call to mind a fine mist, such as that in the jet of water droplets near the spout of a boiling teakettle or in a bathroom after a shower. Vapor and steam, however, refer to the gaseous state of a substance. The fumes that arise when volatile substances such as alcohol and gasoline evaporate, for example, are vapors. The visible stream of water droplets rushing out of a teakettle spout is not steam. As the gaseous state of water heated past its boiling point, steam is invisible. Usually, there is a space of an inch or two between the spout and the beginning of the stream of droplets. This space contains steam. The steam loses its heat to the surrounding air, then falls below the boiling point and condenses in the air as water droplets. All liquids and solids give off vapors consisting of molecules that have evaporated from the substance. In a closed system, the vapor pressure of these molecules reaches an equilibrium at which the substance evaporates from the liquid (or solid) and recondenses on it in equal amounts.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.