• vapour(Commonwealth)

FromMiddle Englishvapour, fromAnglo-Normanvapour,Old Frenchvapor, fromLatinvapor(“steam, heat”).

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˈveɪpə/
• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˈveɪpɚ/

• Audio(US):

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• Audio(US):

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• Rhymes:-eɪpə(ɹ)

vapor (countable anduncountable,pluralvapors)(American spelling)

1. Cloudy diffused matter such asmist,steam orfumes suspended in theair.
   • 1892,James Yoxall, chapter 5, inThe Lonely Pyramid:

     The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Drifts of yellowvapour, fiery, parching, stinging, filled the air.

2. Thegaseous state of a substance that is normally asolid orliquid.
   • 2013 July-August,Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in(Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solventvapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.

3. Somethinginsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,James4:14:

     For what is your life? It is even avapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

   • 1781, Horace Walpole," ":

     I am at this present very sick of my littlevapour of fame.

   • 1822, Charles Perkins,An Oration, page19:

     The press operates as a safety-valve for thevapor of popular ebullision.

   • 1875, Albert Barnes,Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, page80:

     The previous question had turned the attention to life as something peculiarly frail, and as of such a nature that no calculation could be based on its permanence. This expression gives a reason for that, to wit, that it is a merevapor.

   • 1999, Martin Heidegger,An Introduction to Metaphysics, page50:

     Here we can explain only in these broad outlines why the asking of the question of being is in itself through and through historical, and why, accordingly, our question as to whether being will remain a merevapor for us or become the destiny of the West is anything but an exaggeration and a rhetorical figure.

4. (dated) Anymedicinalagent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapour.
   • 1836, Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Charles Cowan,Pathological Researches on Phthisis, page287:

     Sulphurous fumes have also been recommended, as well as diffusing a variety ofvapors in the apartment of the patient; on their beneficial or injurious effects we are unable to speak.

   • 1854 November, Samuel A. Cartwright, “The Case of a Lady in a sugar-house, with Aphonic, Haemorrhagic, Tubercular Phthisis in the Softening State”, inBoston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume51, number14, page275:

     Hence thevapor, so useful in expanding the compressed tissues and enabling the air to permeate and expand the contracted parenchyma in consumption, causes a sensation of great fatigue in asthma.

   • 1861, Charles Mathews,On fumigation of the lungs, throat, &c, page 1:

     Professor Matthews has at length the pleasure, after much unaboidable delay, of respectfully announcin to the Faculty, that he is prepared to fill their prescriptions by any practicable formula, in the use of his new method of applying medicinalvapors to the lungs, air-passages, & c., by means of the Multiform Fumigator .

   • 1944,Quarterly Review of Otorhinolaryngology and Broncho-esophagology, page68:

     The physician can now prescribe medicinalvapors to be dropped on some cotton placed inside the inhaler.

5. (archaic, in theplural)Hypochondria;melancholy; theblues;hysteria, or other nervous disorder.
   • Jan 13, 1732,John Arbuthnot, letter toJonathan Swift

     He talks me into a fit ofvapours twice or thrice a week.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay,Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.:Ure Smith, published1962,→OCLC, page188:

     She made several gulps and controlled her breath. She released her grip on Podson and stared at him without recognition. Podson went on patting her reassuringly, relieved from administering first aid to an attack of thevapours.

6. (obsolete)Wind;flatulence.
   • 1605,Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, inThe Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London:[…] [Thomas Purfoot andThomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […],→OCLC:

     The surcharge of the stomack from a grossvapour, and from the poise of some outward weight, are alike

vapor (third-person singular simple presentvapors,present participlevaporing,simple past and past participlevapored)(American spelling)

1. (intransitive) To become vapor; to be emitted or circulated as vapor.
2. (transitive) To turn into vapor.

   tovapor away a heated fluid

   • 1617,Ben Jonson,Lovers Made Men:

     He'd[…]laugh to see one throw his heart away, / Another, sighing,vapour forth his soul.

3. To emit vapor or fumes.
   • 1627 (indicated as1626),Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, inSylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London:[…]William Rawley […];[p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […],→OCLC:

     Running watersvapour not so much as standing waters.

4. (intransitive) To use insubstantial language; toboast orbluster.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, inPlain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published2005, page172:

     Hevapoured, and fretted, and fumed, and trotted up and down, and tried to make himself pleasing in Miss Hollis's big, quiet, grey eyes, and failed.

   • 1904,“Saki”, ‘Reginald's Christmas Revel’,Reginald:

     then the Major gave us a graphic account of a struggle he had with a wounded bear. I privately wished that the bears would win sometimes on these occasions; at least they wouldn't govapouring about it afterwards.

   • 1924,Herman Melville, chapter 1, inBilly Budd‎^[1], London: Constable & Co.:

     […] an amusing character all but extinct now, but occasionally to be encountered[…]vaporing in the groggeries along the tow-path.

   • 1978,Lawrence Durrell,Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published1992, page513:

     He felt he would startvapouring with devotion if this went on, so he bruptly took his leave with a cold expression on his face which dismayed her for she thought that it was due to distain for her artistic opinions.

5. (transitive) To give (someone) the vapors; todepress, tobore.
   • 1782,Frances Burney,Cecilia, III.vi.9:

     “I only mean,” cried she, giddily, “that he might have some place a little more pleasant to live in, for really that old moat and draw-bridge are enough tovapour him to death […].”

• dew point
• get the vapors

• parvo,parvo-

Borrowed fromItalianvapore.^[1]

vapor m (pluralvaporë,definitevapori)

1. steamboat,steamship

   Synonym:avullore

2. (archaic)steam engine;steam locomotive^[2]

• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2],1980

FromLatinvapor.

• IPA^(key):/baˈpoɾ/[baˈpoɾ]
• Rhymes:-oɾ
• Syllabification:va‧por

vapor m (pluralvapores)

1. vapor

Borrowed fromLatinvapōrem.

• IPA^(key):(Central)[bəˈpor]
• IPA^(key):(Balearic)[vəˈpor]
• IPA^(key):(Valencia)[vaˈpor]

vapor m (pluralvapors)

1. vapor,steam

• cavall de vapor

• “vapor” inDiccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició,Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

FromLatinvapor.

• IPA^(key):/baˈpoɾ/[baˈpoɾ]
• Rhymes:-oɾ
• Hyphenation:va‧por

vapor m (pluralvapores)

1. vapor

   Synonym:gas

• “vapor”, inDicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña:Royal Galician Academy,2012–2025

vapor m

1. ship,steamer

FromProto-Italic*kwapōs, of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly related to Ancient Greekκαπνός(kapnós,“smoke”) andProto-Indo-European*kʷep-(“to smoke, boil, move violently”),^[1] via an older form*quapor that eventually lost its velar.^[2]

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ˈu̯a.por/,[ˈu̯äpɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ˈva.por/,[ˈväːpor]

vapor m (genitivevapōris);third declension

1. steam,exhalation,vapour;smoke
2. warm exhalation,warmth,heat
3. ardour oflove, warmth

Third-declension noun.

• (warmth):calor

• “vapor”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vapor”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• vapor inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

vapor

1. Alternative form ofvapour

vaporoblique singular, f (oblique pluralvapors,nominative singularvapor,nominative pluralvapors)

1. Alternative form ofvapeur

• vapur

• IPA^(key):/vaˈpur/

vapor m (pluralvapor)

1. vapor,steam

Learned borrowing fromLatinvapōrem.

• (Northeast Brazil)IPA^(key):/va.ˈpo/
• Hyphenation:va‧por

vapor m (pluralvapores)

1. vapor /vapour

• a todo vapor

• “vapor” inDicionário Aberto based onNovo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

• prova,pavor

FromItalianvapore,Frenchvapeur.

• IPA^(key):/vaˈpor/

vapor n (pluralvapoare)

1. boat,ship

FromLatinvapor.

• IPA^(key):/baˈpoɾ/[baˈpoɾ]
• Rhymes:-oɾ
• Syllabification:va‧por

vapor m (pluralvapores)

1. steam,vapor (water vapor)
2. steamboat
   • 1918,Carlos Gagini, “A París”, inCuentos grises:

     turistas recién llegados, en cuyas valijas habían pegado sus marbetes azules, blancos o rosados todas las compañías devapores o de ferrocarriles

     newly-arrived tourists, who had their suitcases stuck with blue, white and pink labels of all thesteamboat and railway companies

• “vapor”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10