vaporize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to become converted into vapor.
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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
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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
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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
When small pieces of space debris collide, they blow up into tiny fragments, some of which vaporize into a charged gas due to the heat generated by the impact.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2023
As the kettle heats further, chemicals with higher boiling points vaporize and then are condensed and collected.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2023
The compressed air starts to glow, and when it reaches a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Celsius, the solid material in the meteoroid starts to vaporize.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 8, 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 chase scenes are shot with cool colors and shadows, but the tension vaporizes soon as you realize that the killer can pop up anywhere, untethered by logic or physics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2025
The heat vaporizes the bottom, but the energy doesn't travel through the entire droplet.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 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
"Only a minute fraction of the projectile is preserved in the planet's KT clay layer because the entire meteorite vaporized upon impact."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
They worry that launch emissions and vaporized space junk could damage the ozone layer and interfere with the atmosphere’s complex chemistry in other ways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
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
Unquestionably Syme will be vaporized, Winston thought again.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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 polluted water oozing out of Chiquita Canyon contains cancer-causing benzene and other chemicals, which environmental regulators fear is vaporizing and drifting into nearby communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
Glowing droplets of eau de toilette streamed out behind me, instantly vaporizing into a silver mist that caught the eddies and spread, seeding the cloud.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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.
