ˈsuperˌheated, ppl. a.
[f. super- 9 b + heated ppl. a.]
1. a. (Of steam or vapour): Heated above its temperature of saturation. More widely, (of a substance) heated above the temperature of a phase transition without the change of phase occurring.
| 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. vi. §2. 375 Injecting superheated steam at a temperature of between 500° and 600° into heated fat. 1873 Spon Workshop Rec. Ser. i. 377/1 By applying superheated steam both time and fuel are saved. 1915 Nature 11 Feb. 662/1 The iodine which is transpired as superheated vapour is condensed there. 1931 G. W. Tyrrell Volcanoes vi. 161 Some of the material was melted up by the ascent of a highly super⁓heated lava. |
b. transf. Operated by superheated steam.
| 1883 E. P. Ramsay Food Fishes N.S. Wales 24 The offal..of fish..was disintegrated and dried by superheated system. 1911 Daily News 25 Jan. 2 The North-Western Company are now constructing..twenty superheated engines. |
2. gen. Heated above the ordinary temperature or degree; excessively heated or hot; also
fig.| 1866 Spectator 10 Mar. 267/2 This sort of superheated intellectual strain... The peculiar superheated grandeur and magnificence attached by Americans to the idea of the Union. 1880 A. R. Wallace Isl. Life i. ix. 188 An additional reservoir of super-heated water. 1888 Fenn Off to Wilds xxii. 157 They were up in one of the superheated rifts among the rocks, with the sun pouring down. 1912 Hibbert Jrnl. Oct. 30 This gathering of super-heated men. |
So
ˈsuperheater, an apparatus for superheating steam;
ˈsuperheating vbl. n., (
a) the process of heating steam or vapour above its temperature of saturation; also more widely (
cf. superheat v.); (
b) excessive heating, overheating.
| 1861 Leeds Mercury 2 Nov., The temperature, immediately on leaving the *superheater, was as high as 600 degrees. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 824/1 Engines of large cylinder capacity to admit of great expansion, with surface-condensers and superheaters to the boilers. |
| 1861 Leeds Mercury 2 Nov., Some parties entertain the idea that *superheating may be advantageously applied where steam is used for heating purposes. 1897 Daily News 16 Sept. 2/2 Other cold water is conveyed into a spiral coil and superheating chamber above the light. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xii. 207 Super-heating of the blood. 1980 S. A. Morse Basalts & Phase Diagrams iii. 28 Superheating of crystals above their melting temperature is a rare phenomenon. |