vaporize, v.
(ˈveɪpəraɪz)
Also 9 vapour-.
[f. L. vapōr- vapour n. + -ize. Cf. F. vaporiser.]
1. trans. To convert into smoke. rare—1.
| 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 119 marg. note, Forty load of Tobacco vaporized. |
2. To convert into vapour.
| α 1803 Phil. Trans. XCIII. 26 The reguline zinc, vaporized by the heat, rises from the crucible as a metallic gas. 1849 R. V. Dixon Heat I. 193 The vapour was projected..with a loud, whistling noise, which subsided when the liquid was all vaporised. 1878 J. J. Young Ceramic Art 81 The heat vaporizes the salt, and..the chlorine escapes. |
| β 1836 Smart, To vapourize. 1884 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild H. 110 The hot air vapourising the drops. |
b. In
fig. use.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vi, In figurative language, we might say he becomes..spiritualised, vaporised. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. I. x. 175 They have not only vaporized her husband into a myth, but have consolidated a myth into a lover. 1888 Dowling Miracle Gold III. xxvii. 15 The family estates and honours had been vapourized before that last of the Poniatowskis fell under Napoleon. |
3. intr. To become vaporous.
| 1828–32 Webster, Vaporize,..to pass off in vapour. 1855 Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sci., Elem. Chem. 458 Zinc does not vapourize until the heat is raised to whiteness. 1872 Athenæum 20 Jan. 84/2 Faraday..stated..that mercury ceased to vapourize below the freezing-point. 1881 Tyndall Ess. Floating Matter Air 196 The liquid within the narrow tube vaporizes. |
| fig. 1892 Black & White 2 Apr. 423/1 Money seems somehow to have vaporised away, and none knows anything about it. |
4. trans. To spray with fine particles of liquid.
| 1900 O. Onions Compl. Bachelor v. 51 My hostess..vapourised me in passing with a tiny scent fountain. |
Hence
ˈvaporized ppl. a.;
ˈvaporizing vbl. n. (also
attrib.).
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 823 Chambers into which the *vaporized substances are deposited. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geogr. iii. 124 We must reduce the vaporised water capable of producing rain. 1888 Daily News 15 May 6/2 Small launches..propelled by means of vapourised spirit. |
| 1831–3 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 189/1 The valve before described, attached to the *vaporizing apparatus. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2690/2 Vaporizing stove, one for furnishing steam to dampen the air of apartments, conservatories, etc. 1886 Jrnl. Education 1 Aug. 325 Without this all theorising is empty vapourising. 1896 Daily News 15 July 8/4 The vaporising and condensing of ammonia. |