▪ I. vacuum, n.
(ˈvækjuːəm)
Pl. vacua and vacuums.
[L. vacuum, neut. of vacuus empty: cf. vacuous a. So F. vacuum, It., Sp., Pg. vacuo.]
1. Emptiness of space; space unoccupied by matter. Now rare or Obs.
| 1550 Cranmer Lord's Supper 21 Naturall reason abhorreth vacuum, that is to say, that there shoulde be any emptye place, wherin no substance shoulde be. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 35 This Arte is very proffitable: to proue, that Vacuum, or Emptines is not in the world. 1626 Bacon Sylva §83 The more gross of the Tangible Parts do contract and serve themselves together..to avoid Vacuum. 1657 Trapp Ezra ix. 6 For beyond the moveable Heavens, Aristotle..saith there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. 1676 Poor Robin's Intell. 30 May–6 June 1/1 Having his head as ful of Vacuum as his small proportion of brains was capable of. 1795 W. Blake Bk. Los i, Round the flames roll,..mounting on high Into Vacuum, into nonentity, Where nothing was. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 76/1 The astronomical argument, therefore, in favour of absolute vacuum has fallen. |
2. a. A space entirely empty of matter.
| 1607 A. Brewer Lingua iv. i. H i b, First shall the whole Machin of the world..returne to..Chaos, then the least vacuvm be found in the vniuerse. 1638 Wilkins New World i. (1684) 23 To dispute against Democritus, who thought, that the World was made by the casual concourse of Atoms in a great Vacuum. 1714 Let. from Layman (ed. 2) 7 A Government can't rightfully restrain a Man's professing the Belief of a Vacuum, or a Plenum. 1763 Johnson in Boswell 21 July, There are objections against a plenum, and objections against a vacuum; yet one of them must..be true. 1865 J. Grote Plato I. i. 80 Proceeding upon his hypothesis of atoms and vacua as the only objective existences. 1884 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. i. (1885) 8 The reasons why..Nature abhors a vacuum were discovered. |
b. A space empty of air,
esp. one from which the air has been artificially withdrawn.
| sing. 1652 French Yorksh. Spa ii. 7 So much air being spent, there would of necessity follow a vacuum. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Proem 2 The Interest of the Ayr, in hindring the descent of the Quick-silver, in the famous Experiment touching a Vacuum. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. 8 note, The Ear-wig..and some other Insects would seem unconcerned at the Vacuum a good while, and lie as dead; but revive in the Air. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 299 The air contained therein is condensed, and leaves a vacuum, which the external air..tends to occupy. 1829 Nat. Philos., Heat I. ii. 2 (L.U.K.), Count Rumford proved the passage of heat through a Torricellian vacuum, that is, the space left at the top of a barometer by the mercury falling. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. i. §6 At the height of 80 or 90 miles there is a vacuum far more complete than any which we can produce by any air-pump. 1872 J. P. Cooke New Chem. 17 Alcohol expands more slowly into the aqueous vapor than it would into a vacuum. |
| pl. 1777 Phil. Trans. LXVII. 679 That the vacua be as nearly as possible compleat. 1832 Brewster Nat. Magic x. 262 The plates, being raised or depressed by the voluntary muscles, form so many vacua. |
c. ellipt. for
vacuum cleaner, sense 4 below.
colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1910 Judge 9 Apr. 8/2 A vacuum was the only thing she could be trusted to handle with safety. 1922 Hotel World 25 Mar. 14/1, I have three vacuums going all day. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. (Suppl.) 10/1 Is it better to have a powerful or a handy cleaner? That has always been a problem when choosing a ‘vacuum’. 1977 New Yorker 24 Oct. 88/3 Green Haven's dep [sc. deputy superintendent] of administration was preoccupied with the size of the wet-dry vacuums being used to clean the prison kitchen. |
3. a. An empty space; a portion of space (left) unoccupied or unfilled with the usual or natural contents.
| 1589 Nashe in Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 12 The Scythians, who..swaddle themselues streighter, to the intent no vacuum beeing left in their intrayles [etc.]. a 1635 T. Randolph Poems, Parley with his Empty Purse (1640) 113 Unnatural vacuum, can your emptinesse Answer to some slight questions? 1700 T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. viii, He made a Dive into my Pocket, but encountring a Disappointment, Rub'd off, Cursing the Vacuum. 1758 J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 141, I discovered a Vacuum upon the intercostal Muscles, from whence about a Spoonful of..Matter was discharged. 1791 H. Walpole in Miss Berry's Jrnl. I. 328, I shall fill my vacuum with some lines that General Conway has sent me. a 1838 C. Morris Lyra Urban. (1840) II. 97 The Dandy's head, A vacuum dead, Ne'er tries for thought to seek! |
b. In various
fig. uses.
| 1617 Middleton Fair Quar. ii. D iij b, I cannot see that vacuum in your bloud. 1630 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. vii. 33 It were a vacuum, a defect, a deformitie too absurd in nature..that betwixt two extreames..there should be no middle. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 10 Commonly they misspent that triennial probation, and left upon that place a vacuum of doing little or nothing. 1710 Palmer Prov. 384 'Tis infinitely pleasing to observe there has been no Vacuum in our Life. 1772 Phil. Trans. LXII. 317 It should therefore seem that the larks from the more adjacent parts croud in to supply the vacuum occasioned by the London Epicures. 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay ix, The..vacuum occasioned by my mother's death. 1846 Grote Greece (1862) I. xvi. 294 They filled up the vacuum of the unrecorded past. 1879 R. H. Elliot Written on Foreh. I. 140 So Martin Kerr..was left with a sheer, hopeless vacuum to fill up as best he could. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
vacuum-brake,
vacuum cleanser,
vacuum disk,
vacuum distillation,
vacuum engine,
vacuum-pan,
vacuum-pump,
vacuum-vessel;
vacuum-jacketed,
vacuum-made adjs.;
vacuum activity (see
quot. 1981);
vacuum aspiration, a method of induced abortion in which the contents of the uterus are removed by suction through a tube passed into it via the vagina;
vacuum bottle = vacuum flask below;
vacuum chamber, a chamber designed to be emptied of air;
vacuum cleaner, an electrical appliance for removing dust (from carpets and other flooring, soft furnishings, etc.) by suction; also
transf. and
fig.; hence (as a back-formation)
vacuum-clean v. trans.,
= vacuum v.; so
vacuum-cleaning vbl. n.;
vacuum deposition, deposition of a substance by allowing it to condense from the vapour in what is otherwise a vacuum; so
vacuum-deposit v. trans.,
-deposited ppl. a.;
vacuum extraction Obstetr., the application of suction to a baby's head to assist its birth; so
vacuum extractor, a cup-shaped appliance for achieving this;
vacuum-fitted a., of a railway car: furnished with a vacuum brake;
vacuum flask, a vessel with a double wall enclosing a vacuum so that liquid in the inner receptacle retains its temperature (
cf. Thermos); also
transf. in
attrib. use;
vacuum fluctuation Physics, a fluctuation in field strength in a nominally field-free vacuum, occurring in consequence of the quantization of any radiation field;
vacuum forming, a type of thermoforming in which a vacuum is used to draw the plastic into the mould (see
quot. 1974);
vacuum grease, a grease which because of its low vapour pressure is suitable for sealing joints in a vacuum apparatus;
vacuum packaging, (
a)
= vacuum-packing vbl. n. s.v. vacuum-pack v.; (
b) the vacuumized container used in vacuum-packing;
vacuum polarization Physics, the spontaneous appearance and disappearance of electron-positron pairs in a vacuum;
vacuum pump, a pump for evacuating a container of air or other gas;
vacuum-tight a. = air-tight a.;
vacuum wax = vacuum grease above.
Also
vacuum-apparatus,
vacuum-cylinder,
vacuum-filter,
vacuum-gauge,
vacuum-shunt,
vacuum-valve (Knight, 1875–84).
| 1953 N. Tinbergen Herring Gull's World iv. 35 It is possible..this was just a kind of ‘*vacuum activity’ due to the accumulation of the urge to paddle. 1981 Oxf. Compan. Anim. Behaviour 579/1 Vacuum activities occur in the apparent absence of the external stimuli that normally elicit the activity. |
| 1967 Obstetrics & Gynecol. XXX. 28 (heading) A critical view of *vacuum aspiration: a new method for the termination of pregnancy. 1974 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xlii. 7/2 Before the 12th week it is customary and simplest to evacuate the uterus via the vagina by vacuum aspiration. 1978 F. Weldon Praxis ii. 13 If by mistake they fall pregnant, they abort by vacuum aspiration. |
| 1910 Chambers's Jrnl. June 413/2 The *vacuum-bottle has entered so extensively into the domestic circle as to become regarded almost as indispensable. 1976 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 Mar. 19/5 Use lunch buckets or vacuum bottles to keep foods hot or cold. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2686/1 *Vacuum-brake, a form of steam-operated car-brake. 1889 G. Findlay Eng. Railway 168 The train is fitted throughout with vacuum brakes. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. III. 2687/2 Huffer..claims the use of exhaust steam from an engine to condense in a *vacuum-chamber, and so raise water to turn a wheel. 1971 Materials & Technol. II. v. 230 A certain amount of water is evaporated from the clay as it passes through the vacuum chamber. |
| 1912 Sci. Amer. 22 Nov. 442/2 (caption) *Vacuum-cleaning an automobile. The exhaust gases of the motor create the suction. 1924 Kipling Debits & Credits (1926) 149 The organ-bench, whose purple velvet cushion was being vacuum-cleaned on the floor below. 1956 Good Housek. Home Encycl. (ed. 4) 316/2 Wicker⁓work..requires to be brushed or vacuum-cleaned regularly. 1973 Physics Bull. Feb. 110/3 These..could then be scraped and vacuum cleaned from the carpet. 1977 J. R. L. Anderson Death in City i. 10 A team..did the rooms,..vacuum-cleaning floors. 1983 Daily Tel. 8 Apr. 16/3 Soviet spies are vacuum cleaning the West for its industrial and scientific secrets. |
| 1903 Hardwareman 23 May 395 A decision of..serious import as regards the operations of the *Vacuum Cleaner Co. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 113/1 The ‘Witch’ Dust Extractor is a vacuum cleaner suitable alike for carpets, upholstery, clothing, &c. 1962 A. Lurie Love & Friendship i. 12 She..did not hear the noise of the vacuum cleaner sucking its way up the stair carpeting. 1972 World Bk. Sci. Ann. 1971 342 The vacuum cleaner is actually a hydraulic pump designed to lift as much as 400 tons of material from the sea floor daily. 1976 Times 1 Mar. 13/3 The conservation of fish stocks..in the face of over-developed world fishing fleets and ‘vacuum cleaner’ techniques of fishing. |
| 1902 Let. 20 Oct. in Goblin Story (Goblin Ltd.) (1969) 9, I have submitted the subject of the *Vacuum Cleaning Company's operations to the King. 1916 J. Webster Dear Enemy 71 ‘Well?’ said she, her tone implying that I was a vacuum-cleaning agent. 1939 Country Life 11 Feb. p. vi (Advt.), Vacuum cleaning plant. |
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 30 May 5/3 There is a machine at work, called the ‘*vacuum cleanser’, which gives them all, in turn, a thorough ‘spring cleaning’. |
| 1946 Nature 14 Dec. 862/1 Mollwo reported on the density of *vacuum-deposited salt layers. 1960 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. X. 596/2 Fabrication of printed resistors by vacuum deposition is an expensive process and there has been no general application of this technique except for precision resistive elements. 1982 Jrnl. Colloid & Interface Sci. XC. 335 When certain materials such as Se or Sn are vacuum-deposited onto heated polymers under appropriate conditions, a most unusual structure can form. Ibid. 337/1 The structure of the monolayer assemblies formed by vacuum deposition is almost independent of the deposition rate. Ibid., The vacuum deposited structure is little altered if the system pressure during deposition is allowed to rise. |
| 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 163 Sometimes the *vacuum disks were parallel to the veins [of the glacier]. |
| 1899 tr. R. von Jaksch's Clin. Diag. v. (ed. 4) 170 Still better for this purpose is the method of *vacuum distillation. |
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 670 The application of Mr. Brown's pneumatic, or *vacuum engine. |
| 1961 Lancet 22 July 189/2 They concluded that *vacuum extraction does not distress the fœtus. 1975 I. Illich Med. Nemesis vii. 120 The vacuum extraction method has rendered the interruption of pregnancies safe, cheap and simple. |
| 1954 T. Malmström in Acta Obstetrica et Gynecologica Scandinavica XXXIII. Suppl. No. 4. 5 The *vacuum extractor ad modum Dr Malmstrom is constructed and manufactured in co-operation with R. Soderberg & Co, Gothenburg, Sweden. 1960 Proc. R. Soc. Med. LIII. 749/1 The vacuum extractor consists of a flattened round metal cup with bulging sides. 1980 S. Kitzinger Pregnancy & Childbirth 260 Sometimes a vacuum extractor, or ventouse, is used instead of forceps. |
| 1937 *Vacuum-fitted [see passenger train s.v. passenger 7 a]. 1968 Listener 15 Aug. 210/1 We..have a brake which is known as the vacuum brake, and our wagons are known as vacuum-fitted. |
| 1917 Harrods Gen. Catal. 946/3 The ‘Icy-Hot’ *Vacuum Flasks, improved designs, will keep liquids hot for 24 hours or cold for 3 days. 1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Jan. 5/1 This vacuum flask will keep things hot for you indefinitely. 1958 New Statesman 23 Aug. 214/2 Investigation in person will clearly have to wait until travellers are provided with armour-plated vacuum⁓flask suits. 1978 M. Babson Tightrope for Three vi. 39 She..filled the kettle..and..the vacuum flask as well. |
| 1955 L. Rosenfeld in W. Pauli Niels Bohr 88 The ‘*vacuum’ fluctuations of the field variables. 1973 Nature 14 Dec. 397/1 The laws of physics place no limit on the scale of vacuum fluctuations. The duration is of course subject to the restriction ΔΕΔt ∼ h. 1979 J. C. Polkinghorne Particle Play v. 74 Buffeted by vacuum fluctuations the elementary particle has a pretty rocky ride. This is the origin of the infinities which people found when they first tried to calculate with quantum field theories. |
| 1946 J. Sasso Plastics Handbk. for Product Engineers v. 308 In the *vacuum-forming process the plastic sheet is heated to approximately 250F. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIV. 521/1 In simple vacuum forming, the plastic sheet is clamped over an airtight box, from which air is exhausted, rapidly drawing the heated plastic down on a ‘former’ within the box, thus reproducing its shape. |
| 1946 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. L. 393 Connection to the vacuum system is made by a ground metal joint sealed with *vacuum grease. 1977 Vacuum XXVII. 431/1 There are three factors involved in choosing a vacuum grease—cost, convenience, and its effect on the vacuum system. |
| 1946 Nature 20 July 105/1 The best way to carry methane on motor-vehicles is as a liquid in *vacuum-jacketed tanks. 1970 Sci. Jrnl. Aug. 82/3 The ‘lagged storage tank’ for LNG would need to be vacuum jacketed. |
| 1853 Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 879 *Vacuum-made liqueurs. |
| 1954 L. C. Barail Packaging Engineering xx. 249 The cans filled with the whole products are then sealed by means of vacuum machines, a process known as *vacuum packaging. 1982 R. Manheim tr. Grass's Headbirths iv. 65 The cut in the vacuum packaging could be patched up. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1208 An apparatus inserted air-tight into the cover of the *vacuum-pan. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. 66 The syrup..is boiled down again in the vacuum pan, and is obtained in the form of..crushed sugar. |
| [1935 Physical Rev. XLVIII. 55/2 The existence of [such] an induced charge corresponds to a polarization of the vacuum.] 1951 Ibid. LXXXI. 664/1 We shall illustrate this assertion by applying such a gauge invariant method to treat several aspects of the problem of *vacuum polarization by a prescribed electromagnetic field. 1979 Cheng & O'Neill Elementary Particle Physics iii. 82 The two dominant processes that modify the electron's interaction with the proton.., resulting in the Lamb shift, are the vertex correction and vacuum polarization. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Vacuum-pump, a pump attached to a marine steam-engine. 1882 Chem. News 27 Oct. 192/1 In the machine in question the refrigeration is effected simply by the evaporation of water under a special vacuum-pump. 1979 J. Matley Fluid Movers v. 267/1 A good seal between the inlet and outlet sides is essential in all mechanical vacuum pumps. |
| 1927 Brit. Jrnl. Radiol. XXIII. 143 The glass is directly sealed to a chromium-iron alloy which is perfectly *vacuum-tight. 1946 Nature 23 Nov. 756/2 Vacuum-tight seals through hard glass with bare tungsten wire are difficult to make. 1964 M. Gowing Britain & Atomic Energy 1939–1945 viii. 219 New techniques had to be developed for ensuring that the machinery was..exceptionally vacuum-tight. |
| 1899 Edin. Rev. Apr. 323 Professor Dewar's coils and *vacuum-vessels. |
| 1926 J. H. Smith tr. L. Dunoyer's Vacuum Practice iii. 142 *Vacuum waxes. Golaz wax has been in use since Regnault's time. 1971 Sci. Amer. Aug. 108/1 The joint was sealed with Apiezon W-100 vacuum wax. |
Add:
[4.] vacuum abortion = vacuum aspiration below; an abortion induced by this method.
| 1971 Guardian 8 Nov. 6/8 *Vacuum abortion, first used in Eastern Europe, came to Britain by way of New York. 1984 K. Kaufmann in R. Arditti et al. Test-Tube Women 227 For many women this can mean the difference between being able to have a vacuum abortion, being forced into a saline or being refused entirely at the last minute. |
▪ II. vacuum, v. colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
(
ˈvækjuːəm)
[f. the n.] trans. To clean (a room, carpet, etc.), or to remove (dust, etc.) with a vacuum cleaner. Also
fig. and
absol. Occas. intr. for pass.| 1922 Hotel World 25 Mar. 14/1, I have every room in the hotel vacuumed every week, furniture and all. 1934 in Webster. 1950 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Apr. 36/7 Apparently electrocuted when she stepped on a metal furnace grating while vacuuming the floor. 1959 Times 11 Feb. 12/6 Why could not..the whole establishment be dusted one day, vacuumed another, and so on? 1961 Time (Atlantic ed.) 20 Jan. 17 Her retentive mind vacuums odd details from the newspapers. 1967 D. Francis Blood Sport xv. 179 ‘He says the whole place is covered in flour.’..‘It'll vacuum quite easily, won't it?’ 1974 J. Irving 158-Pound Marriage (1980) ix. 203 Together we vacuumed fragments from every crevice. 1978 M. Dickens Open Bk. xv. 141 In the living room, the carpet was so old, it came up in dusty shreds if you vacuumed. 1980 Daily Tel. 6 Feb. 18 Toads are hungry creatures: no-one better to vacuum a garden of slugs and other pests. 1985 Listener 21 Mar. 25/2 ‘Syd’..watered his milk, left fat on his lamb chops, and vacuumed when he was listening to symphonies on the radio. |
Hence
ˈvacuuming vbl. n.| 1953 L. Kuper Living in Towns ii. 16, I try to do my vacuuming quickly. 1972 J. Porter Meddler & her Murder xii. 160 The lounge could do with the usual dusting and vacuuming. 1979 Tucson Mag. Apr. 62/3 One owner..has worked out his own vacuuming routine over the years. 1984 A. Brookner Hotel du Lac i. 14 After ten o'clock..all household noises had to be silenced; no vacuuming was heard. |
Add:
2. transf. (in
Med. contexts).
| 1975 R. Rimmer Premar Experiments (1976) i. 73 When I didn't get my period, the doctor vacuumed me. 1984 N.Y. Times 3 Dec. c13/5 Suction lipectomy, a process by which fat cells are vacuumed out of the body. 1989 Boston Globe 7 Oct. 21/1 Fat would be vacuumed from my thighs at great expense by a qualified physician. |