vapourish, a.
(ˈveɪpərɪʃ)
[f. vapour n. + -ish.]
1. Of the nature of vapour; dim through the presence of vapour; vapoury.
| 1647 Hexham i, Vaporish, dompigh, roockachtigh. 1781 Hayley Triumphs Temper i. 287 To drive gross atoms from the rays of noon Or chase the halo from the vapourish moon. 1844 Blackw. Mag. LV. 166 The conception is generally vague, vapourish, and metaphysical. 1887 Hall Caine Son of Hagar ii. viii, When Greta set out, the atmosphere was yellow and vapourish. |
2. Apt to be troubled with the vapours; inclined to depression or low spirits.
| 1716–20 Lett. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) I. 97 For, as most other old Maids, she is exceedingly vapourish and fanciful. 1740 Richardson Pamela II. 315 Every one sees, that the yawning Husband, and the vapourish Wife, are truly insupportable to one another. 1782 Sir J. E. Smith Mem. (1832) I. 48 It made me vapourish to see so many students going away. 1803 A. Seward Lett. (1811) VI. 60, I see him, with all his inherent good properties, a vapourish egotist. 1844 Thackeray Barry Lyndon xix, Lady Lyndon, always vapourish and nervous,..became more agitated than ever. |
b. Of the nature of, connected with, arising from, nervous depression.
| 1733 Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. iv. §4 (1734) 148 Some Headachs..may properly enough be call'd Vapourish or Nervous. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 288, I am in the depth of vapourish despondency. 1793 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 41 (1794) II. 107 Be tender of using it in this torpid and vapourish condition. 1835 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 22 This ‘very penetrating world’—as a maid of my mother's used to call it in vapourish moods. 1879 M. E. Braddon Vixen III. 85 His pretty,..middle-aged wife, whose languid airs and vapourish graces were likely to pall..after a year of married life. |
3. Apt to produce vapours. rare—1.
| 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Flux, He must forbear every thing that is hot and vapourish. |
Hence ˈvapourishness.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. 41 You will not wonder that the vapourishness which has laid hold of my heart should rise to my pen. 1860 W. J. C. Muir Ess., Pagan or Christ. 116 There is a vapourishness about the design of French Cathedrals and French work generally. |