a. Also 7 vappid. [ad. L. vapid-us savorless, insipid. Cf. obs. F. vapide (Cotgr.).]
1. Of liquors, beverages, etc.: Devoid of briskness; failing to produce an agreeable effect on the palate; flat, insipid.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Vapid, that gives an ill smack, that casts a vapour or ill savour, stinking.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 116. A sourish, saltish, and … vapid liquor.
1676. Grew, Anat. Pl., Anat. Fl. (1682), 158. Now the Liquors, in which these are generated, do always … lose their Tast and Smell, and so become Vapid.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., xx. 585. Then away goes the brisk and pleasant Spirits and leave a vapid or sour Drink.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 208. It somewhat resembled vapid French white wine.
1788. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 24 July. He … made his own cold tea, and drank it weak and vapid.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 47. Vapid, old and worn out trees, producing vapid fruit.
1864. Sala, in Daily Tel., 1 Nov. So are bottled mineral waters the vapidest of beverages.
fig. 1783. Ld. Bristol, in A. Young, Autobiogr. (1898), vi. 118. When you are vapid, if ever those pétillant spirits of yours are so, come and imbibe some … air at the Downhill.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xiii. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows.
b. Said of taste or flavor.
1677. Grew, Anat. Pl. (1682), 280. A soft Taste, is either Vapid, as in Watery Bodies, Whites of Eggs, Starch,… Or Unctuous, as in Oyls, Fat, &c.
1826. Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 32. It gives to the beer a vapid disagreeable flavour.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 337. The exhilarating effect is produced at the sacrifice of fine flavour, and with the introduction of vapid bitterness.
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands (1866), 118. The tempting appearance of which, however, is not borne out by their flavour, which is mawkish and vapid.
c. Med. Of blood: Devoid of strength or vigor; weak, inert.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIV. 495. In such Diseases the whole mass of Blood … is otherwise grown vappid as it were.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 52. Softening and enriching the sharp and vapid blood.
1834. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 563, note. Dr. Stevens thinks that the blood first loses its solid parts, and becomes thin, that it then becomes deprived of its saline principles, and turns black and vapid.
d. Of flowers: Scentless. rare–1.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Rural Elegance, 235. To rear some breathless vapid flow’rs.
2. fig. Devoid of animation, zest, or interest; dull, flat, lifeless, insipid: a. Of talk, discourse, writings, etc.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 34, ¶ 8. Conversation would become dull and vapid.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., Wks. 1765, II. 204. Vapid frivolous chit-chat serves to pass away the time.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 211. The minute ceremonials and vapid common-place of the German theatre.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-T., Ser. II. i. The news of the morning become stale and vapid by the dinner-hour.
1865. H. Phillips, Amer. Paper Curr., II. 112. The newspapers contained as usual vapid and lengthy essays.
1885. Manch. Exam., 11 Feb., 4/7. There is … a great deal of vapid declamation on this subject, but it will soon die out.
b. Of amusements, pleasures, etc.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 16. This town … begins to grow satiated with the uniform round of its vapid dissipations.
1799. Han. More, Fem. Educ. (ed. 4), I. 98. A sophisticated little creature, nursed in these forced, and costly, and vapid pleasures.
1825–9. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, IV. xxviii. 399. One continued round of vapid amusements, some of which are too light and trifling even to amuse a child at a common fete.
1877. Mrs. Forrester, Mignon, I. i. Mrs. Stratheden’s ‘At Homes’ are very different from the general run of those vapid and dreary entertainments.
c. Of persons or places.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 393. The languid eye, the … wither’d muscle, and the vapid soul, Reproach their owner.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 197. I grew so dull, and vapid, and genteel.
1839. [Mrs. Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 272. Masulipatam was an ugly place;… nothing to be seen but wide sandy roads,… altogether, a most vapid sort of place.
1873. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond. (1876), 119. The adoption of the most vapid young lady’s perversion of her mother-tongue.
d. In miscellaneous contexts.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, I. 236. A scheme of human happiness, which no time, no repetition can make vapid to a feeling heart.
1818. Hazlitt, Table-T., On Vulg. & Affect. It is a vapid assumption of superiority.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, II. vii. A smile is … in general vapid.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Market Harb., 10. The vapid demeanour and cool assurance which triumph in a ball-room.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., viii. 515. If these pernicious views … be entertained … the renewal of humanity [is] a vapid and foolish dream.
† 3. Of a damp or steamy character; dank; vaporous. Obs.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxii. 169. A vapid Air, or Water rarified into vapor, may … emulate the elastical power of … true Air.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 18. Few (if any) vappid and stinking Exhalations can ascend from them to corrupt the Air.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 449. Rheita affirms, that he observed Jupiter to be invested round with a vapid Atmosphere.
Hence Vapidism. rare–1.
1831. Carlyle, Schiller, in Fraser’s Mag., III. 130. All critical guild-brethren now working diligently … in the calmer sphere of Vapidism or even Nullism.
