| / English Dictionary |
VAPOUR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The process of becoming a vapor
Synonyms:
evaporation; vapor; vaporisation; vaporization; vapour
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("vapour" is a kind of...):
phase change; phase transition; physical change; state change (a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in chemical composition)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vapour"):
boiling (the application of heat to change something from a liquid to a gas)
clouding; clouding up (the process whereby water particles become visible in the sky)
smoke; smoking (a hot vapor containing fine particles of carbon being produced by combustion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A visible suspension in the air of particles of some substance
Synonyms:
vapor; vapour
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("vapour" is a kind of...):
suspension (a mixture in which fine particles are suspended in a fluid where they are supported by buoyancy)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vapour"):
steam (water at boiling temperature diffused in the atmosphere)
water vapor; water vapour (water in a vaporous form diffused in the atmosphere but below boiling temperature)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb vapour
Context examples:
The mixture, which was at first of a reddish hue, began, in proportion as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce audibly, and to throw off small fumes of vapour.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Their breath froze in the air as it left their mouths, spouting forth in spumes of vapour that settled upon the hair of their bodies and formed into crystals of frost.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
“Surprisingly, however, we do not see the iron vapour in the morning,” says Ehrenreich.
(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)
Might I trouble you to open the window, for chloroform vapour does not help the palate.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell with all its force upon the clearing and drank up the vapours at a draught.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
“Since Jupiter is so cold, any water vapour in its atmosphere would be condensed, making it difficult to measure,” said Welbanks.
(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)
In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Unlike man, whose gods are of the unseen and the overguessed, vapours and mists of fancy eluding the garmenture of reality, wandering wraiths of desired goodness and power, intangible out-croppings of self into the realm of spirit—unlike man, the wolf and the wild dog that have come in to the fire find their gods in the living flesh, solid to the touch, occupying earth-space and requiring time for the accomplishment of their ends and their existence.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr. Utterson beheld a marvelous number of degrees and hues of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would be a glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Strong winds carry iron vapour to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets.
(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)
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