aeriformadj.n.

1782 R. Kirwan in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 72 209 This intirely depends on the state of this same substance, which, when fixed and concrete, is called phlogiston, and, when rarified and aëriform, inflammable air.

1790 W. Nicholson First Princ. Chem. 55 Modern discoveries, respecting bodies in the aeriform state, have produced several capital improvements in the vessels used for distillation.

1822 T. Webster Imison's Elem. Sci. & Art (new ed.) I. 126 Pneumatics is the science which treats of the mechanical properties of elastic or aeriform fluids.

1860 G. W. S. Piesse Lab. Chem. Wonders 125 Many gases which are only known to exist in an aëriform state in our climate, become first liquids, and then solid substances.

1883 Lancet 29 Dec. 1124/1 It may be a ‘terrestrial aeriform emanation’.

1901 M. Foster Lect. Hist. Physiol. 246 Lavoisier found that Black's fixed air could be most readily prepared by treating chalk with acids, and he had determined that it gave an acid reaction; hence he preferred to call it aeriform calcic acid.

1958 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 14 138 (table) Motion of aeriform fluid.

2000 M. Crosland in F. L. Holmes & T. H. Levere Instruments & Exper. Hist. Chem. iv. 98 In the very first chapter of his textbook, on ‘the formation of elastic aeriform fluids,’ he wrote, ‘Henceforth I shall express these elastic aeriform fluids by the generic term gas.’

1827 T. Carlyle Goethe in German Romance IV. 29 The figures light and aëriform, come unlooked for, and melt away abruptly.

1834 T. Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. Apr. 443/2 Of Man's Activity and Attainment the chief results are aeriform.

1878 T. D. English Gasology 47 Man in disposition is so currish, That his mortal body he'll not nourish, On promises aeriform or vapory flourish.

2004 Weekly Standard (Nexis) 19 Jan. 18 The Peter Pans of today are not aeriform boys who still have all their baby teeth but grotesque adults.

1840 E. A. Poe Tales of Grotesque & Arabesque I. 23 He talked..of aëriforms, fluidiforms, and solidiforms.

1854 Chemist 1 7 Aeriforms unite in volumes which are in simple ratio to each other, the product of their union when aeriform being also in simple ratio.

1866 Proc. Royal Soc. Edinb. 5 220 The volumes of these molecules are either equals, halves, or doubles, &c., as in aëriforms.