1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Ezek. viii. 11 And the vapour, or smoke, of a cloud roos togider of the ensence.

c1386 G. Chaucer Melibeus ⁋23 It may nat be..þat where as gret fyre hath longe tyme endured þat þere ne dwelleth som vapour of warmnesse.

c1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula 93 Stoppe þe mouþe, þat þe vapour go noȝt out. And biry þe vessel with þe oile in moist erþe.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Ecclus. xxxviii. 28 The vapoure of the fyre brenneth his flesh.

1551 W. Turner New Herball sig. A v^v The brothe of wermwood with his vapor that riseth vp from it.

1562 W. Turner Bk. Natures Bathes Eng. sig. B.ij^v, in 2nd Pt. Herball The hote vapores [of a bath].

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 45^v Grasse..(too greene and moyst) yf it be carryed into the Loft, rotteth, and the vapour being ouerheated, falleth on fyre and burneth.

1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi v. §2. 87 A Vapour hath a certain watry nature in it, and yet it is not water.

1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. viii. 680 Full Hecatombs lay burning on the Shore; The Winds to Heav'n the curling Vapours bore.

1772 W. Buchan Domest. Med. (ed. 2) xlv. 589 The smoke of tobacco..the vapours of onions and garlic..are carefully to be avoided.

1800 tr. E. J. B. Bouillon-Lagrange Man. Course Chem. I. 16 At the end of a certain period the bottle will be filled with red vapours.

1823 H. Davy in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 113 165 The compression [of gases] resulting from their slow generation in close vessels..may be easily assisted by artificial cold in cases where gases approach near to that point of compression and temperature at which they become vapours.

1824 M. Faraday in Q. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts Jan. 237 Now that we know the pressure of the vapour of chlorine, there can be no doubt that the following passage describes a true liquefaction of that gas.

1824 M. Faraday in Q. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts Jan. 239 During the condensation of the gas in this manner, a liquid has been observed to deposit from it. It is not, however, a result of the liquefaction of the gas, but the deposition of a vapour (using the terms gas and vapour in their common acceptation) from it, and when taken out of the vessel it remains liquid at common temperatures and pressures.

1830 M. Donovan Domest. Econ. I. ix. 337 Vapours now arise, which are concentrated acetic acid... These vapours pass over..into the cask of water.

1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. III. i. 18 Vapours of ammonia will be evolved if nitrogen be present.

1883 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics (ed. 11) vi. v. 312 A vapour may be defined as being a gas at any temperature below its critical point. Hence a vapour can be converted into a liquid by pressure alone, and can therefore exist in the pressure of its own liquid, while a gas requires cooling as well as pressure to convert it into a liquid.

1891 F. W. Farrar Darkness & Dawn II. xlvi. 138 Then they dragged her to the bath, heated it to boiling heat, and suffocated her in the burning vapour.

1979 T. B. Akrill et al. Physics xi. 141/1 It is conventional to use the term vapour to describe a gas which is at a temperature below the critical temperature for that substance, but there is no obvious difference between a vapour just below T_c..and a gas just above T_c.

c1386 G. Chaucer Squire's Tale 385 The vapour, which that fro the erthe glood, Made the sonne to seme rody and brood.

c1402 J. Lydgate Compl. Black Knight 24 When that the mysty vapour was agoon, And clere and feyre was the morw[e]nyng.

1508 W. Dunbar Goldyn Targe (Chepman & Myllar) in Poems (1998) I. 191 Suete war the vapouris, soft the morowing.

1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure (1845) xvi. 60 All abrode the fayre dropes dyd shewe, Encensynge out all the vapours yll.

1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles II. cc. 252/2 Discendyng downe as in to a cellar, a certayne hoote wapure rose agaynst them.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde ii. ix. f. 84^v If..wee shal consent that vapours are lyfted vp wherof the watery cloudes are engendred.

1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies iii. viii. 143 You shall vsually see great calmes vpon the coastes, where the vapors come from the Ilands, or maine land.

1660 J. Childrey Britannia Baconica 60 The air is not very clear because of vapors continually rising.

1698 J. Keill Exam. Theory Earth (1734) 83 The vapours which are raised by the Sun under the Torrid Zone.

1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 215 But when the breath of age commits the fault, 'Tis nauseous as the vapor of a vault.

1820 P. B. Shelley Sensitive Plant in Prometheus Unbound 170 And hour by hour, when the air was still, The vapours arose which have strength to kill.

1874 J. S. Blackie On Self-culture 49 In hot countries, where insalubrious vapours in some places infest the night.

1422 J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. 239 That the wapours that gonne vp into the hede in tyme of slepynge may haue issue.

1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory ii. xviii. sig. e When the brayne is hurt so that y^e humours and vapours styre and moue the..phantasye.

1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 53 Of humours some are more grosse and colde, some are subtyl and hot, and are called vapours.

1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. xi. 188 Oftentimes the head doth ach for the ill vapours of the stomach.

c1680 W. Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 332 Those malign vapours which by reason of over-much eating are exhaled from the stomach into the head.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 201 Vapours from an empty Stomach.

1868 J. F. Kirk Hist. Charles the Bold III. v. ii. 375 His habit of drinking in the morning a bowl of warm barley water under the notion of expelling noxious vapors.

1662 H. Stubbe Indian Nectar iii. 33 By the eating of those Nuts, she feels Hypochondriacal vapours..to be instantly allayed.

1680 E. M. Thompson Corr. Family of Hatton (1878) I. (Camden) 221 My wifes disease, I think, is vapors.

a1699 W. Temple Ess. Health & Long Life in Wks. (1720) I. 283 To all these succeeded Vapours, which serve the same Turn, and furnish Occasion of Complaint among Persons whose Bodies or Minds ail something, but they know not what.

1728 E. Young Love of Fame: Universal Passion (ed. 2) iii. 136 Sometimes, thro pride, the sexes change their airs; My lord has vapours, and my lady swears.

1735–6 Bayne in J. Duncombe Lett. Several Eminent Persons Deceased (1773) II. 87 The dispiriting symptoms of a nervous illness commonly called vapours, or lowness of spirits.

1783 ‘P. Pindar’ More Lyric Odes to Royal Academicians vi. 14 The world will be in fits and vapours.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. III. 146 In the First Variety, which is commonly distinguished by the name of Vapours, or Low Spirits, the patient is tormented with a visionary or exaggerated sense of pains.

1823 C. Lamb Praise of Chimney-sweepers in Elia 253 The rake, who wisheth to dissipate his o'er-night vapours in more grateful coffee.

1879 G. Meredith Egoist xx She had a headache, vapours. They are over.

1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 115. ¶4 It is to a Neglect in this Particular that we must ascribe the Spleen, which is so frequent in Men of..sedentary Tempers, as well as the Vapours to which those of the other Sex are so often subject.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 187 These Things fill'd my Head with new Imaginations, and gave me the Vapours again, to the highest Degree.

1778 S. Lennox Life & Lett. (1901) I. 284 I should have the vapours all day if I played an hour at cards.

1803 J. Porter Thaddeus of Warsaw (1831) xxviii. 251 I must drink better health to you to save myself from the vapours.

a1839 W. M. Praed Poems (1888) 12 Don't give your Royal brain the vapours By opening Opposition papers.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. III. 544 Professor Loeffler..instead of cauterising the limb from which the epileptic halitus seems to ascend, has ingeniously tied a tight ligature above the part whence the vapour issues.

1875 R. F. Burton Ultima Thule I. 67 The vapour-belt which girdles the mountain flanks.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2690/1 Vapor-burner, a device for burning previously vaporized liquid hydrocarbons.

1922 W. G. Kendrew Climates of Continents 215 The sea is then coolest relatively to the land, so that the vapour-capacity of air blowing from the sea is increased over the land.

c1843 T. Carlyle Hist. Sketches (1898) 253 Those far-spread smoke-clouds and vapour-clouds rising up there.

1851 M. Reid Scalp Hunters I. xix. 250 Vapour-clouds, from the Atlantic, undergo a similar detention in crossing the Alleghany range.

1862 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (ed. 2) III. i. §1. 25 To calculate the vapour density of any compound.

1890 A. M. Clerke Syst. Stars 54 The vapour-densities of several of these metals are significantly high.

1855 J. Ogilvie Suppl. Imperial Dict. Vapour-douche, a topical vapour-bath, which consists in the direction of a jet of aqueous vapour on some part of the body.

1839 R. S. Robinson Naut. Steam Engine Explained 177 Another variety of marine engine is Mr. Howard's vapour engine.

1845 Encycl. Metrop. VIII. 188/1 Howard's steam or vapour engine.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2690/1 In 1850..M. Prospère Vincent du Trembley brought into notice what is now known as the ‘binary vapor-engine, or the ‘combined vapor-engine’.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2690/1 Vapor-inhaler,..one for administering vapor produced by drawing or forcing atmospheric air through a liquid, or a sponge saturated with a liquid.

1848 E. Ronalds & T. Richardson tr. F. Knapp Chem. Technol. I. 154 Vapour lamps.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2690/2 Vapor lamp, see Vapor-burner.

1946 Nature 19 Oct. 562/1 A process has been developed for the preparation of motor fuel and other petroleum products by a method based on vapour-phase cracking of the vegetable oils contained in seeds.

1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xxv. 515 The vapour-phase nitration of propane.

1862 G. P. Scrope Volcanos (ed. 2) 22 The vapour-pillar rises still higher.

1913 V. B. Lewes Oil Fuel 79 A horizontal cylindrical boiler with a dome from which a broad vapour-pipe leads the distilling vapours to the condensers.

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 132 I have made divers..leaps at those upper regions; but always fell backward into this vapour-pit.

1862 G. P. Scrope Volcanos (ed. 2) 22 This pillar of white vapour-puffs.

1682 N. Grew Anat. Plants ii. i. iii. 67 There is yet another kind of Sap-Vessels, which may be called Vapour-Vessels.

1862 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (ed. 2) III. i. §2. 46 The simplicity thus introduced into our calculations of vapour volume.

1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 67 Then thou faire Sunne, which on my earth doost shine, Exhalst this vapour-vow . View more context for this quotation

1707 J. Floyer Physician's Pulse-watch 62 Since I find all Vapour Fits to have the Pulse of a diary Fever, I place this Constitution next to the Fevers.

1930 S.A.E. Jrnl. 27 93/1 The more volatile a fuel, the greater will be the tendency to boil in the fuel-feed system as the engine warms up. If the fuel boils, then interruptions of flow due to vapor lock may be expected.

1951 O. Berthoud tr. P. H. Clostermann Big Show 39 My jettison-tank gave out—probably a vapour-lock in the feed pipes.

1974 Times 22 Mar. 15/4 Filter King is said..to prevent carburettor flooding..and to prevent vapour ‘lock’.

1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 385/2 As regards the atmosphere, evaporation [of water] goes on until the maximum vapour pressure for the temperature has been attained, at which point the air is said to be saturated.

1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. vii. 175 The vapour pressure of water at 100°C is 1 atm.

1946 Sun (Baltimore) 17 May 13/3 About a foot of earth was scraped away from the site and a layer of vapor-proof material placed on the ground.

1963 Engineering 16 Aug. 205/1 A heat resisting gasket..is fitted..to render the unit vapourproof and weatherproof.

1981 Oil & Gas Jrnl. 20 Apr. 167/2 The recorder case is made of die cast aluminum, and it's vapor-proof.

1845 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 135 169 Cyanogen..yielded on different occasions results of vaporous tension differing much from each other.]

1864 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. I. 18 The range..of diffusive mobility..appears to be as wide as the scale of vapour-tensions.

1933 W. Lindgren Mineral Deposits (ed. 4) x. 116 Sudden separation of the gaseous phase will take place..only if the vapor tension of the solutions is greater than the external pressure.

1941 Picture Post 3 May 23/1 The vapour trails are left by the R.A.F. fighters weaving in and out of the German formation.

1948 L. Durrell Let. in Spirit of Place (1969) 98 Vapour-trails of cows on the pampas, desolation.

1977 W. McIlvanney Laidlaw xxvi. 115 The vapour trails left by interrupted conversations.

1979 C. Priest Infinite Summer 18 There, high in the blue, were several curling white vapour-trails, but no other sign of the German bombers.

1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Pistles in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Fiij Though he shoulde vaper into teares.

1640 I. Walton Life of Donne in Lives (1670) 77 In the last hour of his last day, as his body melted away and vapoured into spirit,..he said [etc.].

1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ To Rdr. sig. A4 Words vanish soon, and vapour into Ayr.

c1407 J. Lydgate Reson & Sensuallyte 454 Whan Phebus..on the herbes tendre and softe The bawmy dropes siluer fair Vapoured hath vp in the ayr.

?1520 J. Rastell Nature .iiii. Element sig. Avij Therfore by hete it is vaporyd vp lyghtly And in the ayre makyth cloudys and mystis.

1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory ii. xiii. sig. d3 Or ellys it wyll be vapoured vp by the hete of the sonne.

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1956) VIII. 142 But every man is vapor'd up into ayre; and, as the ayre can, hee thinkes he can fill any place.

1795 W. Blake Bk. Ahania in Poet. Wks. (1914) 345 Effluvia vapour'd above In noxious clouds.

1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory iii. vii. sig. f3^v The temperate eyer..wyll..vapour out the tartnes and sowernes of that humour.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §23 Opium leeseth some of his poisonous Quallity, if it be vapoured out, mingled with Spirit of Wine, or the like.

1638 W. Rawley tr. F. Bacon Hist. Nat. & Exper. Life & Death 185 In Dissipating Medecines, some vapour forth the thinner part of the Tumours.

1674 Govt. Tongue 134 If he..call me dull, because I vapor not out all my spirits into froth.

1591 E. Spenser Ruines of Time in Complaints 219 He now is dead, and all his glorie gone, And all his greatnes vapoured to nought.

1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 228 Thy soul's but a Blast, That with thy Breath is vapored to nought.

1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 36 With more of the same Dew..vapoured to siccity.

1814 Forgery ii. iv, in J. Galt New Brit. Theatre I. 453 Ev'n the hot potent wine, Whose power only but a short time since Flatter'd my brain, is vapor'd all in air.

1888 C. M. Doughty Trav. Arabia Deserta I. 79 If there runs in any water, within a while it will be vapoured to the dregs.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Vapouren or cast out vapoures, halito.

1650 E. Ashmole tr. A. Dee Fasciculus Chemicus iv. 51 Our Fire is Minerall, and vapours not, unlesse it be too much stirred up.

1540 R. Jonas tr. E. Roesslin Byrth of Mankynde i. f. liii The matrice..muste be annoynted, perfumed, and vapored with suche thinges, the which maye make it more ample & large.

1875 R. D. Blackmore Alice Lorraine I. 150 One of those sudden changes, which (at less than a breath) vapour the glass of the feminine mind.

1629 J. Ford Lovers Melancholy iv. 58 He vapours like a Tinker, and struts like a Iuggler.

1649 J. Milton Εικονοκλαστης xv. 145 Poets indeed use to vapor much after this manner.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant ii. 180 He would suffer no body to say any thing to him, and to hear him vapour, there was no Man greater than he.

1700 S. L. tr. C. Frick Relation Voy. in tr. C. Frick & C. Schweitzer Relation Two Voy. E.-Indies 160 He vapour'd and call'd me all the Cowards he could think of.

1760 Cautions & Advices to Officers of Army 12 I have heard so many young Officers, vaporing and wishing to meet an Enemy.

1809 W. Combe Schoolmaster's Tour in Poet. Mag. Aug. 173 Dear Mrs. Syntax, how she'd vapour Were she to read this curious paper!

1859 W. Collins Queen of Hearts I. 154 You may imagine what a passion I was in when I vapoured and blustered in that way.

1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Mar. 1/1 Lord Salisbury has vapoured a good deal and brandished his painted sword of lath.

1658 F. Osborne Mem. Reigns Elizabeth & James in Wks. (1673) 470 That..vapoured he would..bring him in by the Sword.

1665 W. Winstanley Loyall Martyrol. 11 An unanswerable Work, of which they will never clear themselves, brag and vapour what they please.

c1665 L. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1973) 149 Plumtre..began to Vapour that he would have the Castle pull'd downe.

1692 S. Patrick Answer to Touchstone of Reformed Gospel 258 Neither he, nor any one else (whatsoever he vapours) dare break in pieces, or tear a Crucifix, or Picture.

1727 A. Pope Sandys's Ghost in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. 127 To poor Ovid shall befal..A Metamorphosis more strange Than all his Books can vapour.

1755 W. Warburton Apol. for two first Let. in Wks. (1788) VII. 572 Pope gave easy credit to him, when he vapoured that he would demonstrate all the common Metaphysics to be wicked and abominable.

1848 C. Kingsley Saint's Trag. iv. i. 180 Where are the high-flown fancies Which but last week..You vapoured forth?

a1872 F. D. Maurice Friendship Bks. (1874) x. 279 Vapouring away patriotism is undoubtedly a very bad thing.

1654 B. Whitelocke Jrnl. Swedish Ambassy (1772) I. 158 Who was not to be vapoured or threatened into a conformity to their desires.

1665 J. Glanvill Scepsis Scientifica Addr. Royal Soc. sig. a That I might not therefore be vapour'd down by insignificant Testimonies.

1829 T. L. Peacock Misfortunes Elphin ix. 123 I am not to be sung, or cajoled, or vapored, or bullied out of my prisoner.

1698 J. Collier Short View Immorality Eng. Stage v. 214 He was Formal and Fantastick, Smitten with Dress, and Equipage, and it may be vapour'd by his Perfumes.

1774 J. Berridge Let. 16 Aug. in Wks. (1864) 386 At times, when I am very low, a letter that demands a speedy answer will vapour me as much as a large bill requiring prompt payment would a sinking tradesman.

1779 Duchess of Devonshire Sylph I. 24 I shall be vapoured to death if I stay here much longer.

1796 F. Burney Camilla III. v. vi. 85 She has lost all her sprightliness, and vapours me but to look at her.

1804 ‘Gabrielli’ Something Odd! I. 216 His low spirits, which are indeed so very bad at times, as to bore and vapour one to death.

1802 M. Moore Lascelles I. 19 The evenings are so long, that I declare I vapour every time they come for want of something else to do.