Forms: 4–6 exalacion, (4 -tion, 5 -cyon, 6 -tione), 5 exalacioun, -cyoun, 6– exhalation. [ad. L. exhālātiōn-em, n. of action f. exhālāre to EXHALE.]
1. The action or process of exhaling, breathing forth or throwing off in the form of vapor; evaporation. Const. of.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xv. (Tollem. MS.). To hot sunne … makeþ to greet exalacion and wastynge of þe kynde hete.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., II. iii. 152. It is drede of sodeyn deeþ, for sodeyn exalacioun of þe spiritis.
1582. Hester, Secr. Phiorav., I. xxxii. 39. The Feuer is dissolued with … exhalation and exsication.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 41. The aire … by exhalation is elevated, and doth rise from the earth.
1676. Grew, Anat. Plants, Lect. ii. (1682), 240. Exhalation; when not only fumes, but visible steams are produced.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 135/2. The skin and pulmonary surface are the great implements of exhalation among animals.
fig. 1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. II. 60. A Pinnacle of Grandeur above all exhalation of scandal.
b. The action of emitting the breath; expiration; an instance of this; a puff. Also fig. the blowing off or getting rid of (anger, excitement, etc.).
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 416. After these exhalations … his mind became more composed.
1834. Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 249. But there are some who do wound us barbarously, shorten the brief span of our [a cigar’s] being, making it only a few volcanic exhalations.
1854. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Poet. & Imag., Wks. (Bohn), III. 159. The length of lines in songs … is determined by the inhalation and exhalation of the lungs.
1878. H. James, Europeans, I. ii. 73. Gertrude gave a little long, soft exhalation.
2. concr. That which is exhaled; a mist, vapor, etc.; an emanation or effluvium, a scent. Also collect.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 95. Through divers exalations … Men sene diverse forme appere Of fire.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. iii. (1495), 469. Hylles gendre exalacyon, smokes and vapours.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 287. She ouery stynking exalacyoun Of þe eyr bare alwey ful heuyly.
1540–1. Elyot, Image Gov., 64. Sickenesses, whiche undoubtedly dooe growe of corrupt exhalacions ventynge out of mens bodies.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 1 b. Abstain from soche meates, as … make exalacion, or smoke up into the braine.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 32. So noysome an exhalation, that birds … are poysoned with the very breath and ayre thereof.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 78, ¶ 2. The Indian wanders among his native spices without any sense of their exhalations.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lx. 282. Nero’s golden house had risen like an exhalation, and like an exhalation it disappeared.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 117. Pulmonary and cutaneous exhalations of men.
fig. 1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, 11 a. Exhalations, drawen vp to the heauen of honor, from the dunghil of obiect fortune.
1877. R. H. Hutton, Ess., II. 342. The turbid malarious exhalations of visionary excitement.
3. A body or portion of vapor, usually enkindled vapor; a meteor. arch.
1561. Eden, Arte Nauig., II. xx. 51 b. Shining exhalations … appeare in tempestes.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 44. The exhalations, whizzing in the ayre, Giue so much light, that I may reade by them.
1660. Glanvill, Vanity Dogm., xviii. 174. The Galaxy is no exhalation from the Earth, but an heap of smaller Luminaries.
1720. Ozell, trans. Vertot’s Rom. Rep., I. IV. 201. This Year … fiery Exhalations were seen in the Air.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., ii. 58. The star of the shepherds was a meteoric exhalation.
