Also 5–6 vapowre, 6 vapoure; 5 wapour, 6 wapure; 6– vapor. [a. AF. vapour (OF. vapeur) or ad. L. vapōr-, vapor steam. Cf. F. vapeur, Sp. and Pg. vapor, It. vapore.]
1. Without article: Matter in the form of a steamy or imperceptible exhalation; esp. the form into which liquids are naturally converted by the action of a sufficient degree of heat.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 11. As man, brid, best, fisshe, herbe, and greene tree The feele in tymes with vapour eterne.
1382. Wyclif, Joel ii. 30. Blood, and fijr, and vapour of smoke.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 588/1. Vapowre, vapor.
1480. Caxton, Myrr., II. xxv. (1913), 117. This is a moisture subtyl whiche appereth but lytyl, and is named vapour.
1565. Cooper, Thes., Vaporo, to heate or make warme with vapour.
1604. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Vapor, moisture, aire, hot breath, or reaking.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. v. (1611), 97. Vapour is a moist kinde of fume extracted chiefly out of the water.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., v. § 2 (1643), 81. If it [exhalation] come from the water or some watry place, it is Vapor.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 737. The Hills … Vapour, and Exhalation dusk and moist, Sent up amain.
1725. Watts, Logic (1736), 115. Snow is congealed Vapour. Hail is congeal’d Rain.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 199. The perpetuity of many springs, which always yield the same quantity when the least rain or vapour is afforded.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 116. A white smoke, which is azote and water in a state of vapour.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, vi. There were large masses of heavy vapour rolling across the southern part of the horizon.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 40. Only when the vapour is partially condensed, and therefore ceases to be true vapour.
fig. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 393. When Tempest of Commotion,… Borne with black Vapour, doth begin to melt.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 316. There is nothing but Shadow and Vapour in the Thing.
2. An exhalation of the nature of steam, or an emanation consisting of imperceptible particles, usually due to the effect of heat upon moisture.
In later use frequently spec. in Chem. Sometimes, esp. in poetry, loosely applied to smoky matter emitted from burning substances.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. viii. 11. And the vapour, or smoke, of a cloud roos togider of the ensence.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Melibeus, ¶ 23. It may nat be … þat where as gret fyre hath longe tyme endured þat þere ne dwelleth som vapour of warmnesse.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 93. Stoppe þe mouþe, þat þe vapour go noȝt out. And biry þe vessel with þe oile in moist erþe.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxxviii. 28. The vapoure of the fyre brenneth his flesh.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. A v b. The brothe of wermwood with his vapor that riseth vp from it. Ibid. (1562), Baths, B ij b. The hote vapores [of a bath].
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 46. Grasse … (too greene and moyst) yf it be carryed into the loft, rolleth, and the vapour being ouerheated, falleth on fyre and burneth.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., v. § 2 (1643), 81. A Vapour hath a certain watry nature in it, and yet it is not water.
1716. Pope, Iliad, VIII. 680. Full hecatombs lay burning on the shore; The winds to Heaven the curling vapours bore.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 457. The smoke of tobacco,… the vapours of onions and garlic,… are carefully to be avoided.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 16. At the end of a certain period the bottle will be filled with red vapours.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 337. Vapours now arise, which are concentrated acetic acid…. These vapours pass over … into the cask of water.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., i. 18. Vapours of ammonia will be evolved if nitrogen be present.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xlvi. Then they dragged her to the bath, heated it to boiling heat, and suffocated her in the burning vapour.
b. An exhalation rising by natural causes from the ground or from some damp place; freq., a mist or fog.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 385. The vapour, which that fro the erthe glood, Made the sonne to seme rody and brood.
c. 1402. Lydg., Compl. Bl. Knt., 24. When that the mysty vapour was agoon, And clere and feyre was the morw[e]nyng.
1508. Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 247. Suete war the vapouris, soft the morowing.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xvi. (Percy Soc.), 60. All abrode the fayre dropes dyd shewe, Encensynge out all the vapours yll.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. cc. 252/2. Discendyng downe as in to a cellar, a certayne hoote wapure rose agaynst them.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 133. If … wee shal consent that vapours are lyfted vp wherof the watery cloudes are engendred.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. viii. 143. You shall vsually see great calmes vpon the coastes, where the vapors come from the Ilands, or maine land.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Bacon., 60. The air is not very clear because of vapors continually rising.
1698. Keill, Exam. Th. Earth (1734), 83. The vapours which are raised by the Sun under the Torrid Zone.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 50. But when the breath of age commits the fault, ’Tis nauseous as the vapour of a vault.
1820. Shelley, Sensit. Pl., III. 77. And hour by hour, when the air was still, The vapours arose which have strength to kill.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 49. In hot countries, where insalubrious vapours in some places infest the night.
c. fig. Used esp. (see a) to denote something unsubstantial or worthless.
(a) 1382. Wyclif, Jas. iv. 15. Forsothe what is ȝoure lijf? A vapour, to a litel semynge. [Similarly in Tindale and later versions.]
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 112. Our lyfe is but a shadow…, a vapor, a bubble, a blast.
1608. Chapman, Byron’s Trag., Plays, 1873, II. 311. He alters euery minute: what a vapor The strongest mind is to a storme of crosses.
1663. Davenant, Siege of Rhodes, Wks. (1672), 25. Let it not last, But in a blast Spend this infectious vapour, Life!
1732. Law, Serious C., iv. 52. Those Scriptures which represent … the greatest things of life as bubbles, vapours, dreams, and shadows.
1781. H. Walpole, Lett. (1897), VIII. 34. I am at this present very sick of my little vapour of fame.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 78. A man to whom the Earth and all its glories are in truth a vapour and a Dream.
(b) 1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 164. In my Greatnesse … to be hid, And in the vapour of my Glory smother’d.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxvi. § 8. Upon the Church there never yet fell tempestuous storm the vapors whereof were not first noted to rise from coldnesse in affection.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 49. I should do wrong … to dislustre so pure a matter with the impression of so blacke a vapour.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ix. The gleams of sense and feeling which escaped from the Justice through the vapours of sloth and self-indulgence.
3. pl. In older medical use: Exhalations supposed to be developed within the organs of the body (esp. the stomach) and to have an injurious effect upon the health.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 239. That the wapours that gonne vp into the hede in tyme of slepynge may haue issue.
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., II. xviii. When the brayne is hurte so that the humours and vapours styre and move the … phantasye.
1539. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 53. Of humours some are more grosse and colde, some are subtyl and hot, and are called vapours.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, IV. ii. (1840), 198. Oftentimes the head doth ache for the ill vapours of the stomach.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 332. Those malign vapours which by reason of over-much eating are exhaled from the stomach into the head.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 472. Vapours from an empty Stomach.
1868. J. F. Kirk, Chas. the Bold, III. V. ii. 375. His habit of drinking in the morning a bowl of warm barley water under the notion of expelling noxious vapors.
b. A morbid condition supposed to be caused by the presence of such exhalations; depression of spirits, hypochondria, hysteria or other nervous disorder. Now arch. (Common c. 1665–1750.)
1662. H. Stubbe, Indian Nectar, iii. 33. By the eating of those Nuts, she feels Hypochondriacal vapours … to be instantly allayed.
1680. Hatton Corr. (Camden), 221. My wifes disease, I think, is vapors.
c. 1690. Temple, Ess. Health & Long Life, Wks. 1720, I. 283. To all these succeeded Vapours, which serve the same Turn, and furnish Occasion of Complaint among Persons whose Bodies or Minds ail something, but they know not what.
1728. Young, Love Fame, III. 136. Sometimes, thro’ pride, the sexes change their airs; My lord has vapours, and my lady swears.
1735–6. Bayne, in J. Duncombe, Lett. (1773), II. 87. The dispiriting symptoms of a nervous illness commonly called vapours, or lowness of spirits.
1783. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Odes to R.A.’s, v. Wks. 1812, I. 60. The World will be in fits and vapours.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Praise Chimney-Sweepers. The rake, who wisheth to dissipate his o’er-night vapours in more grateful coffee.
1822. Good, Study Med., III. 146. In the First Variety, which is commonly distinguished by the name of Vapours, or Low Spirits, the patient is tormented with a visionary or exaggerated sense of pains.
1879. Meredith, Egoist, xx. She had a headache, vapours. They are over.
c. So The vapours. (Common in 18th cent.)
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 115, ¶ 4. It is to a Neglect in this Particular that we must ascribe the Spleen, which is so frequent in Men of … sedentary Tempers, as well as the Vapours to which those of the other Sex are so often subject.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 161. These things fill’d my Head with new Imaginations, and gave me the Vapours again, to the highest Degree.
1778. Lady S. Lennox, Lett. (1901), I. 284. I should have the vapours all day if I played an hour at cards.
1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus, xxviii. (1831), 251. I must drink better health to you to save myself from the vapours.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1888), 12. Don’t give your Royal brain the vapours By opening Opposition papers.
† d. Path. The epileptic aura. Obs.
1822. Good, Study Med., III. 544. Professor Loeffler,… instead of cauterising the limb from which the epileptic halitus seems to ascend, has ingeniously tied a tight ligature above the part whence the vapour issues.
† 4. A fancy or fantastic idea; a foolish brag or boast. Obs.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. iii. Let’s drinke it out, good Vrs, and no vapours! Ibid., v. Gentlemen, these are very strange vapours! and very idle vapours! I assure you.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, Def. xxvi. 264. After all their vapours what do they lymbeck out of this Text?
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 118. For those, whose Modesty must not endure to hear their own Praises spoken, may yet publish of themselves the most notorious Vapours imaginable.
1703. Steele, Tender Husb., II. i. These are mere vapours, indeed—Nothing but vapours.
1738. trans. Guazzo’s Art Conversation, 165. I have Remedies to cure them of their Arrogance, and to keep those Vapours from fuming into the Head.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. With sbs., as vapo[u]r-belt, -burner, -cloud, -density, etc.; (in sense 3 b) vapo[u]r-fit.
1875. R. F. Burton, Ultima Thule, I. 67. The *vapour-belt which girdles the mountain flanks.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2690. *Vapor-burner, nadevice for burning previously vaporized liquid hydrocarbons.
c. 1843. Carlyle, Hist. Sk. (1898), 253. Those far-spread smoke-clouds and *vapour-clouds rising up there.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xix. 137. Vapour-clouds from the Atlantic undergo a similar detention in crossing the Alleghany range.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2), i. § 1. 25. To calculate the *vapour density of any compound.
1890. A. M. Clerke, Syst. Stars, 54. The vapour-densities of several of these metals are significantly high.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., *Vapour-douche, a topical vapour-bath, which consists in the direction of a jet of aqueous vapour on some part of the body.
1831–3. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 188/1. Howard’s steam or *vapour engine.
1839. R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 177. Another variety of marine engine is Mr. Howard’s vapour engine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2690/1. In 1850 … M. Prospère Vincent du Trembley brought into notice what is now known as the ‘binary vapor-engine,’ or the ‘combined vapor-engine.’
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 62. Since I find all *Vapour Fits to have the Pulse of a diary Fever, I place this Constitution next to the Fevers.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2690/1. *Vapor-inhaler,… one for administering vapor produced by drawing or forcing atmospheric air through a liquid, or a sponge saturated with a liquid.
1848. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol., I. 154. *Vapour lamps.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2690/2. Vapor lamp, see Vapor-burner.
1862. Scrope, Volcanoes, 22. The *vapour-pillar rises still higher.
1777. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 76. I have made divers … leaps at those upper regions; but always fell backward into this *vapour-pit.
1862. G. P. Scrope, Volcanoes, 22. This pillar of white *vapour-puffs.
1864. Spencer, Biol., I. 18. The range … of diffusive mobility … appears to be as wide as the scale of *vapour-tensions.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Pl., Anat. Roots, II. (1682), 67. There is yet another kind of Sap-Vessels, which may be called *Vapour-Vessels.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2), i. § 2. 46. The simplicity thus introduced into our calculations of *vapour volume.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 70. Then thou, faire Sun, which on my earth doest shine, Exhalest this *vapor-vow.
b. With adjs. and pples., as vapo[u]r-belted, -braided, -burdened, -filled, etc. Also vapo[u]r-like adj. and adv.
1820. Shelley, Witch Atl., lvii. Many a *vapour-belted pyramid.
1855. Tennyson, Letters, 42. Sweetly gleam’d the stars, And sweet the *vapour-braided blue.
1730–46. Thomson, Autumn, 827. Th’ exhaling sun, the *vapour-burden’d air.
1894. Outing, XXIII. 363. The dark, *vapor-filled night closed in.
1821. in Ld. Coleridge, Story Devonsh. Ho., xvii. (1905), 280. A pair of sleek steeds that are as delicate as a *Vapour-headed Lady.
a. 1715. Wycherley, Posth. Wks. (1728), 147. If then so soon the Great and Powerful fail, And *Vapour-like, almost e’er seen, exhale.
1840. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci. (ed. 5), 424. A vapour-like smoke.
1862. Spencer, First Princ., II. ix. § 76 (1875), 227. Each portion of such vapour-like matter must begin to move towards the common centre of gravity.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Vaporiferousness, an exhaling or *vapour-producing Quality.
1832. J. Bree, St. Herbert’s Isle, 68. At length the impatient hours the twilight led With *vapour-sandaled feet and rubied cheek.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., vii. (1842), 220. The junction being made *vapour-tight … by some glazier’s putty.
