▪ I. exhaust, n.
(ɛgˈzɔːst)
[f. exhaust v.]
The process or means of exhausting.
1. a. (a) Steam-engine. The exit of steam from the cylinder after having done its work in propelling the piston; the passage through which this takes place; = eduction 5. (Also in similar sense with reference to water-power and gas engines.)
Etymologically, this is appropriate only to the case of a low-pressure engine, in which the steam is literally ‘exhausted’ from the cylinder by opening communication with the condenser; but when high-pressure engines were introduced, the word continued to be used as a synonym of eduction, which it has almost superseded.
| 1848 Pract. Mech. Jrnl. I. 44, I have before seen double valves with the duplex steam passages, but in all of them the exhaust was single. 1865 Burgh Slide Valve 71 In some instances an increase is deemed necessary to allow a more free exhaust. 1875 Martin Winding Mach. 76 Back⁓pressure in the exhaust, owing to the large masses of steam which are suddenly let out through contracted..passages. 1887 J. A. Ewing in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 487 If during the back stroke the process of exhaust is discontinued before the end. 1889 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 322 The rapid pulse-like beats of the exhaust [in a locomotive]. 1890 Engineer 30 May 441 No choking of the exhaust can prevent an increase of speed. |
(
b) The expulsion of combustion products from the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine, the products so expelled, or the valve or pipe by which they escape.
| 1896 B. Donkin Text-bk. Gas, Oil, & Air Engines (ed. 2) ii. xxvii. 391 The engine, oil tanks, and exhaust are arranged in the same way as in the Capitaine launches. 1902 Daily Chron. 4 Sept. 7/4 The exhausts crackling like quick firers. 1904 A. B. F. Young Compl. Motorist iii. 53 The problem of silencing has been to reduce the sound of the exhaust to a minimum and to retain the maximum of power given off by the engine. 1906 Macm. Mag. Nov. 60 Offensive exhaust is the Committee's polite name for what..we must dignify with its proper title, an intolerable stink. 1912 Motor Man. (ed. 14) 235 There is no mistaking the somewhat pungent odour of an over-rich mixture exhaust, whilst an excessively over-rich mixture produces a ‘black’ exhaust. 1915 D. O. Barnett Lett. 176 Suddenly he blew a cloud of smoke out of his exhaust, and up went his tail, and he began going down in spirals. 1957 Encycl. Brit. VII. 348/2 The four-stroke cycle engine operates as follows: (1) intake..; (2) compression..; (3) power..; (4) exhaust. 1961 L. Mumford City in History x. 296 The reek of gasoline exhaust. |
b. The process of exhausting (a vessel) of air; the degree to which exhaustion is carried.
| 1880 De La Rue in Nature XX. 33 The greatest exhaust that we have produced, 0·000055 millim. Ibid. As the exhaust is carried further it becomes a pale milky white. |
2. a. The production of an outward current of air by creating a partial vacuum.
b. Any apparatus for effecting this.
Cf. exhaust-fan.
| 1852 Pract. Mech. Jrnl. V. 54 A free and copious exhaust is secured on both sides of the cylinder [fan]. 1884 Bath Herald 27 Dec. 6/4 An exhaust [in a flour mill] carries away the lightest particles. 1887 Pall Mall G. 11 Oct. 11/1 There are two great exhausts to draw off smoke and heat from the stage. 1889 Daily News 2 Jan. 2/4 A steam exhaust, which produces an artificial air current. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., chiefly in sense 1 a, as
exhaust-box,
exhaust-cylinder,
exhaust-gas,
exhaust-lap,
exhaust-manifold,
exhaust-passage,
exhaust-pipe,
exhaust-stroke,
exhaust-valve; also
exhaust-fan (
= earlier
exhausting fan), a fan for producing a current by creating a vacuum;
exhaust fumes orig. U.S., the gases emitted through the exhaust system of a motor vehicle;
exhaust injector, an injector for feeding a steam-boiler with water, worked by exhaust steam;
exhaust-port, the opening in the slide-valve of a steam-engine for the escape of exhaust-steam (
= exhaust-passage);
exhaust-steam, the waste steam discharged from the cylinder of a steam-engine.
| 1903 Motoring Ann. 141 Few things are more annoying than an intermittent, loud report from the *exhaust box of a petrol motor. 1912 Motor Man. (ed. 14) 235 A car that is addicted to exhaust-box explosions. |
| 1892 Daily News 4 Oct. 3/3 The proceeds of combustion pass from an *exhaust cylinder in form of a gas that cannot be seen. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 815/2 *Exhaust-fan. 1882 Birmingham Wkly. Post 24 June 3/7 An exhaust fan for drying hay and corn in the stack. |
| 1937 Amer. Jrnl. Public Health XXVII. 322/1 The *exhaust fumes of internal combustion engines introduce gases, both malodorous and otherwise, capable of producing nausea, headache, and, in extreme concentrations, death. 1975 B. Bainbridge Sweet William ii. 62 The absurd man climbed back into his car and drove away in a cloud of exhaust fumes. |
| 1902 A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors vii. 118 The exhaust pipe from the engine which conducts off the *exhaust gases after they have done their work in the cylinder. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 212/1 In gas and oil engines the exhaust gases consist of the products of combustion, together with any unburnt gases remaining after the explosion. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 32 The weather in town is always benzine, or else petrol fumes Lubricating oil, exhaust gas. |
| 1890 Engineer LXX. 473 We have for years made *exhaust injectors that..utilise waste steam. |
| 1888 Lockwood Dict. Mech. Engin. 130 *Exhaust lap, the reduction or narrowing of the inner faces of a slide valve to less than that distance which would correspond with a length measured between the inner edges of the steam ports, by which difference the ports are closed earlier than they would be if their edges coincided exactly with those of the arch of the valve. |
| 1848 Specif. Varley's Patent No. 12,238. 2 *Exhaust-passage. 1854 Pract. Mech. Jrnl. VI. 115 As the exhaust passage [in a water pressure engine] is open to the pipe, the waste water passes off through this pipe. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Exhaust-pipe, in a steam-engine, the pipe that conveys waste steam from the cylinder to the condenser, or through which it escapes to the atmosphere. 1902 Exhaust pipe [see exhaust-gas above]. 1919 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (R. Aeronaut. Soc.) 48 The exhaust pipe extends from the exhaust manifold to the silencer. |
| 1848 Pract. Mech. Jrnl. I. 44 The central *exhaust port of the slide valve. |
| Ibid. 80 The *exhaust steam from the cylinders. 1890 Engineer 7 Nov. 386 (title of paper) Treatment and Utilisation of exhaust steam. |
| 1894 B. Donkin Text-bk. Gas, Oil, & Air Engines i. i. 16 There are always two strokes, the forward or motor stroke, and the return or *exhaust stroke. 1913 W. E. Dommett Motor Car Mech. 8 On the next up stroke, and the exhaust valve being open, the burnt gases are forced out of the cylinder, the piston performing the exhaust stroke. |
| 1848 Specif. Varley's Patent No. 12,238. 2 The two *exhaust valves. 1899 Motor-Car World I. 54/2 To the casual observer the greatest failing of the Bollée is the noise, but to the owner the exhaust valve will probably be the most troublesome part. 1919 H. Shaw Text-bk. Aeronaut. x. 118 When the piston is nearing its lowest position, the exhaust valve is opened by a cam. |
Add:
[3.] exhaust stack (
stack n. 5 b).
| 1927 Aviation XXIV. 1763/1 This end weighs no more than a short *exhaust stack and offers less air resistance. 1956 C. L. Coombes Locomotive Cycl. (ed. 15) 19/1 Exhaust stack, the ducts placed on top of the hood or cab to convey the exhaust gases away from the locomotive. 1985 Truck & Driver June 23/2 His tall exhaust stacks are made in Holland by the Giddy-up Go concern and have so far stood up well to some foul English weather. |
▪ II. † eˈxhaust, pa. pple. and ppl. a. Obs. Also 7
exhauste,
erron. exhaused.
[ad. L. exhaust-us, pa. pple. of exhaurīre: see next.] A. pa. pple. (in various senses of the
vb.).
| 1523 Wolsey in Fiddes Life ii. 114 The enemy exhaust of money. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. (1549) 123 Charges enforced, haue exhaust..the more parte of your substaunce. 1627 May Lucan viii, They..when their quivers are exhaust, must flee. 1649 Lanc. Tracts (Chetham Soc.) 278 Most men's estates being..now almost quite exhauste by the present scarsity. 1654 R. Codrington tr. Justin's Hist. 121 The Kingdom exhaused of souldiers did much distract him. 1708 Philips Cider i. 124 When the alien compost is exhaust, Its Native Poverty again prevails. |
B. ppl. a. = exhausted ppl. a. in various senses.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. vi. (1676) 39/1 Intemperate, dissolute, exhaust through riot. 1624 F. White Repl. Fisher 555 Contemning the merits of Christ, accounting the same drie and exhaust. 1627 tr. Bacon's Life & Death (1651) 28 The eager flames, do dry Bodies and render them exhaust and saplesse. 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. ii. xliii, His brain In time would be exhaust and void of wit. 1708 J. Philips Cyder ii. 55 Reject the apple-cheese tho quite exhaust. |
▪ III. exhaust, v. (
ɛgˈzɔːst)
[f. L. exhaust- ppl. stem of exhaurīre; see exhauriate.] 1. trans. To draw off or out (now only, air);
lit. and
fig.| 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 24 Innumerable summes of monei, crafteli exhausted out of this realme. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii 119 The Babe, Whose dimpled smiles from Fooles exhaust their mercy. 1632 Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry ii. i, Your thankless Cruelty, and Savage Manners..Exhaust these Floods [of tears]. 1665 G. Harvey Advice agst. Plague 23 Exhaust a convenient proportion of bloud. 1705 Derham in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 319 Those..with double Barrells..exhaust the air with greater ease and quickness. 1728 Earbery tr. Burnet's St. Dead I. 157 These things we have exhausted from the sacred Scriptures. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Phil. 101 Exhaust the air from beneath the bladder. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf. T. xii, Putting an animal under the bell of an air-pump and exhausting the air from it. |
† b. To take a draught of; to drink or suck up.
Cf. L.
exhaurire vinum.
Obs.| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 331 The Dragon thrusteth his head into his [the Elephant's] tronke and exhausteth his breath. 1626 Bacon Sylva §360 Some that have kept Chamelions..might observe their Bellies to swell after they had exhausted the air. 1679 Jane Fast. Serm. 8 Salmanasser..like an insatiable gulph devoured and exhausted all. |
2. To use up completely (either a material or immaterial thing); to expend the whole of; to consume entirely.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe ii. vii. (1541) 18 b, The fyre hathe not exhausted the moysture of them. a 1704 Locke (J.), Though the knowledge they have left us be worth our study, yet they exhausted not all its treasures. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 555 Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage! 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 87 ¶14 A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists. 1786 Burke W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 125 Whatever relief was given..the same was soon exhausted. 1853 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith 223 How do they almost exhaust the resources of language to express their sentiments. |
† b. in weaker sense: To expend, spend.
Obs.| 1616 Bullokar, Exhaust to consume, spend, or waste. 1659 Hammond On Ps. xvii. 14 Paraphr. 87 To leave abundantly to their children..having no care of charity or mercy to others, on which to exhaust anything. |
c. To account for or utilize the whole number or quantity of (anything).
| 1748 Hartley Observe. Man ii. i. 23 In the same manner as Mathematical Quantities are exhausted by the Terms of an infinite Series. 1816 Bentham Chrestom. 241 The parts..exhaust the contents of the whole. 1846 Mill Logic iii. xxv. §6 There have taken place a sufficient number of drawings to exhaust all the possible combinations. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 227 Good ideas are not all exhausted by the ancient forms. |
3. To empty by drawing the contents off or out; to drain; to empty
of (specified contents).
| 1614 Earl Stirling Dooms-day 3rd Hour lxxvi, The litle Brookes exhausted in their Springs. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Proem 19 We never were able totally to exhaust the Receiver. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 484 The..Udders never fail; But when they seem exhausted, swell the Pail. 1784 Specif. Watt's Patent No. 1432 Which vessel [a condenser] by cooling and condensing part of the steam does partly exhaust the steam vessel [i.e. the cylinder]. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 138 Having..closed my nostrils and exhausted my lungs. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. iii. 245 A tube which could be exhausted of air. 1871 ― Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) I. ii. 38 Let us suppose the glass tube..to be exhausted by an air-pump. |
b. refl. Of a river: To empty itself.
rare.
| 1833 Lytton Eng. & English iii. i, The waters of Terek exhaust themselves in the Caspian Sea. |
c. intr. Of steam: To escape from the cylinder after doing its work;
cf. exhaust n. 1 a.
| 1851 Pract. Mech. Jrnl. IV. 146 The steam exhausts through the centre opening. 1865 Burgh Slide Valve 52 Before the steam can exhaust, the valve must open the same port. |
4. To draw out all that is essential or interesting in (an object of investigation or exposition); to treat or study (a subject) so as to leave nothing further to be explained or discovered.
| 1704 Addison Italy Pref., There are still several of these topics that are far from being exhausted. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 150 ¶6 He who..soon exhausts any single subject, is always eager for new enquiries. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 2 Hooke was considered to have exhausted the history of the Roman Republic. 1860 Trench Serm. Westm. Ab. ix. 92 It is not easy to exhaust them [words of Scripture] so to draw out all their meaning. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life ix. i. 301 We do not easily exhaust the mind of another. |
5. To drain (a person, kingdom, etc.) of strength or resources, or (a soil) of nutritive ingredients; hence, to weary out, enfeeble extremely.
| 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. xcv. 364 The Kingdome was much exhausted of men and mony. c 1676 Wiseman Surgery (J.), Spermatick matter of a vitious sort..exhausts it [the blood] of its best spirits. 1707 Addison Pres. St. War Wks. 1746 III. 253 The French monarchy is already exhausted of its best and bravest subjects. 1711 Earl of Oxford in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 409 IV. 266 This the Queen has done..notwithstanding the great need we have of peace, and that the nation is exhausted. a 1714 J. Sharp Serm. (1754) III. iii. 44 There is no man that thinks warmly..upon a thing, but mightily exhausts his spirits. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 31 Lime..exhausts the earth by absorbing its oily particles. 1798 Ferriar Eng. Histor. in Illustr. Sterne 233 Great exertions seem to exhaust the moral, as well as the physical world. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 79 The thought of being absolutely exhausted had never occurred to me. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. V. xlii. 163 The inhospitable wilderness was exhausted of its scanty resources. 1887 Stubbs Med. & Mod. Hist. 230 The Thirty Years' War exhausted Germany. |
¶ Incorrectly used for
exhance.
| 1622 F. Markham Bk. War ii. iii. 50 The priuiledge whereof doth..exhaust and raise up his entertainment. |
Add:
[3.] d. Of (part of) an engine or other machine: to discharge or emit exhaust fumes or other gases. Also
fig. orig. U.S.| 1908 Automobile 13 Feb. 213/1, I took off the exhaust pipes..and..found one of the elbows completely stopped up with carbon salts, having only an opening as big around as a lead pencil, to exhaust through. a 1935 in Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men (1935) 323 Here come a woman walking 'cross the field, Her mouth exhausting like an automobile. 1955 W. H. Crouse Automotive Engines vi. 163 The exhaust manifolds..are interconnected by a crossover pipe, and they exhaust through a common muffler and tail pipe. 1971 Sci. Amer. Aug. 107/1 Gas pressure in the accelerator tube is controlled by a pair of oil diffusion pumps that operate in series and exhaust into a mechanical air pump. 1984 Sci. Amer. Dec. 35/2 The DC10 rear engine extends straight through the tail fin, whereas the Lockheed L1011 tail engine exhausts through the end of the fuselage. |