steam
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stiːm/
ipa: /stiːm/
rhymes: -iːm
Forms: form: steams
Etymology: From Middle English steem, stem, from Old English stēam (“steam, hot exhalation, hot breath; that which emits vapour; blood”), from Proto-Germanic *staumaz (“steam, vapour, breath”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to whirl, waft, stink, shake; steam, haze, smoke”). Cognate with Scots stem, steam (“steam”), West Frisian steam (“steam, vapour”), Dutch stoom (“steam, vapour”), Low German stom (“steam”), Swedish dialectal stimma (“steam, fog”), Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”).
Senses: hypernyms: water vapor
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water#Noun
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compound#Noun
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substance#Noun
glosses: The hot gaseous form of water, formed when water changes from the liquid phase to the gas phase (at or above its boiling point temperature).
glosses: The suspended condensate (cloud) formed by water vapour when it encounters colder air.
Mist, fog.
glosses: The suspended condensate (cloud) formed by water vapour when it encounters colder air.
Exhaled breath into cold air below the dew point of the exhalation.
glosses: Pressurized water vapour used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical energy.
examples: text: Give the carrots a ten-minute steam.
glosses: The act of cooking by steaming.
examples: text: After three weeks in bed he was finally able to sit up under his own steam.
text: Them that puts the most steam into it will get a finnuf slipped to 'em.
ref: 1927, Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb, Ladies and Gentlemen, page 129:
glosses: Internal energy for progress or motive power.
examples: text: Dad had to go outside to blow off some steam.
glosses: Pent-up anger.
examples: text: Among the most modern of all the Pacific stock in Great Britain is the stud of "Merchant Navy" and "West Country" Pacifics on the Southern Region, and the rebuilding which is now being carried out, preserving all the best features of the Bulleid designs—such as the free-steaming boiler—and jettisoning the features that have given trouble, in particular the chain-driven valve-motion, should give the Southern a supply of highly-competent machines able to last out the remaining life of steam on the S.R.
ref: 1957 July 23, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 496:
glosses: A steam-powered vehicle, referring to their use.
glosses: Travel by means of a steam-powered vehicle.
examples: text: a steam of rich, distilled perfumes
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
glosses: Any exhalation.
topics: fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: Fencing without the use of any electric equipment.
Synonyms: sense: a steam-powered vehicle
word: steamer
Derived terms: blow off one's steam
blow off steam
build up steam
by steam
double steam
full steam
full steam ahead
gain steam
gather steam
head of steam
in steam
let off steam
live steam
one engine in steam
pick up steam
raise steam
run out of steam
steam accumulator
steam age
steam ahead
steam bath
steam beer
steam-boat
steamboat
steam boiler
steam carriage
steam chest
steam coal
steam condenser
steam-crack
steam-cracked
steam cracker
steam cracking
steam crane
steam devil
steam digester
steam distillation
steam dome
steam donkey
steam drier
steam drum
steam engine
steam fair
steam festival
steam fog
steam generator
steam gun
steam hammer
steam-hauled
steam-heat
steam heater
steam heating
steam iron
steam jack
steam jacket
steam loco
steam locomotive
steam lorry
steam navvy
steam organ
steam-packet
steam piano
steam pipe
steampipe
steam power
steam-powered
steampunk
steam radio
steam railroad
steam reforming
steam roller
steamroller
steam room
steam-ship
steamship
steam ship
steam shovel
steam-shovel
steam table
steam tractor
steam train
steam tunnel
steam turbine
steam wagon
steam yacht
under one's own steam