vaporize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
vaporizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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vaporized,
past participle, past
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vaporizing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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vaporizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vaporized,
past participle, past
-
vaporizing
present participle
-
to become converted into vapor.
-
to indulge in boastful talk; speak braggingly.
verb
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to change or cause to change into vapour or into the gaseous state
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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)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vaporizesimple
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vaporizessimple
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have vaporizedperfect
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has vaporizedperfect
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am vaporizingprogressive
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are vaporizingprogressive
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is vaporizingprogressive
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have been vaporizingperfect progressive
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has been vaporizingperfect progressive
Past
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vaporizedsimple
-
had vaporizedperfect
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was vaporizingprogressive
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were vaporizingprogressive
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had been vaporizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vaporize
Explanation
To vaporize is to evaporate and turn into gas. If you're watching a sci-fi movie, it probably means to vanish quickly or be utterly obliterated by a phaser gun. As the structure of the word suggests, vaporize means "turn into vapor." Sometimes this means just turning into gas, like when boiling water turns into steam and rises into the atmosphere. Other times, something more concentrated is left behind, like when maple sap is boiled down into syrup. And in the greenhouse (or grocery store produce section), to vaporize is also to spray your green things with a light coating of mist.
Vocabulary lists containing vaporize
Cosmos
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"The Hunger Games," Chapter 2 Vocabulary
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Locomotion
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“You don’t often watch a company vaporize in front of your eyes,” he told me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Hot showers or baths can vaporize those chemicals too, and if there’s bacteria in the water, it could splash in your eyes, nose or mouth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2025
Too high, and the heat will vaporize the entire droplet.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2024
As the kettle heats further, chemicals with higher boiling points vaporize and then are condensed and collected.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2023
I felt like I could vaporize on the spot.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
When a single research report vaporizes hundreds of billions in market cap, institutional investors have already modeled their own displacement.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
The organic matter in a person’s body, I was told, vaporizes when burned hot enough, leaving behind the pulverized, inorganic substance we call ashes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
When the launchpad behind those particles is hit by a laser beam, part of the material vaporizes, creating a jet of vapor that propels the particle in the opposite direction.
From Science Daily ● May 22, 2024
Patagonia is collecting end-of-life wet suits for a partner that vaporizes them to reclaim what’s known as carbon black, a key ingredient in neoprene and in the natural rubber Patagonia uses.
From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2024
It's a sullen, vindictive cold outside, colder than it's been in months, and my breath vaporizes as we hurry along the canal.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
Astronomers have identified powerful winds of vaporized metals inside a vast cloud that blocked the light of a distant star for almost nine months.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2026
The suit, filed last week in Arlington, Va. where Boeing is based, is the latest to allege that exposure to vaporized engine oils during a flight has led to long-term illness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
While the latter two were essentially vaporized by the fire, the burned shells of the others remain, steel sentinels left ravaged by the flames.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
Other human remains found elsewhere in Herculaneum had iron oxide deposits in the skull, suggesting that the fluids in the skull were vaporized by the heat, leaving only traces of degraded heme proteins.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2025
A flaming green cannonball sailed overhead and suddenly vaporized.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
These high velocity impacts shattered enormous volumes of rock beneath the surface while vaporizing material and scattering molten rock across the landscape.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
In January 2002, Global Crossing filed for bankruptcy, vaporizing tens of billions in market value.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
It does sound magical that a human being could turn into glass, but far better if studying the Guardian can prevent vaporizing, volatilization and vitrification — or saponification — of anyone else.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2025
The massive machine uses deep-learning AI models to scan fields and identify weeds in real time before vaporizing them with more than 30 high-powered lasers, all while protecting the crop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2024
She zipped it to my phone with a patch that I opened first to prevent the worm from vaporizing my hard drive.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
