steam
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /stiːm/
ipa: /stiːm/
rhymes: -iːm
Forms: form: steams
form: steaming
form: steamed
form: steamed
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: examples: text: The best way to cook artichokes is to steam them.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To cook with steam.
examples: text: The artichokes are steaming in the pot.
text: I'm steaming in this coat.
qualifier: literal
glosses: To be cooked with steam.
examples: text: to steam wood or cloth
glosses: To expose to the action of steam; to apply steam to for softening, dressing, or preparing.
examples: text: "We will give 198 a full exam. Then steam her, and operate her for the rest of the season.
ref: 2023 July 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Saved: Trust protects Adrian Shooter's legacy”, in RAIL, number 987, page 28:
glosses: To raise steam, e.g. in a steam locomotive.
examples: text: See, ſee, my Brother's Ghoſt hangs hovering there, / O're his vvarm Blood, that ſteems into the Air, / Revenge, Revenge it cries.
ref: 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act III, scene iii, page 36:
text: I found that the Chapelon steamed almost too freely, because on a strange locomotive and road one usually tends to overfire a little through a natural lack of confidence.
ref: 1961 February, 'Balmore', “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 110:
glosses: To produce or vent steam.
examples: text: Our breath steamed in the cold winter air.
text: [T]he diſſolved Amber vvas plainly diſcernable ſvvimming like a thin film upon the ſurface of the Liquor, vvhence little by little it ſteamed avvay into the air.
ref: 1661, Robert Boyle, “[Two Essays, Concerning the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments, Containing Divers Admonitions and Observations (Chiefly Chymical) Touching that Subject.] The First Essay, of the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments.”, in Certain Physiological Essays and Other Tracts; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Henry Herringman […], published 1669, →OCLC, page 66:
glosses: To rise in vapour; to issue, or pass off, as vapour.
glosses: To become angry; to fume; to be incensed.
examples: text: It really steams me to see her treat him like that.
glosses: To make angry.
examples: text: With all the heavy breathing going on the windows were quickly steamed in the car.
text: A strong sirocco was blowing the spray from the waves as far as the little café, whose glass doors were shut. The café reeked of brewing sage and human beings whose breath steamed the windows because of the cold outside.
ref: 1952, Nikos Kazantzakis, chapter 1, in Carl Wildman, transl., Zorba the Greek, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, translation of Βίος και πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá], →ISBN, page 3:
roman: Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá
glosses: To cover with condensed water vapor.
examples: text: We steamed around the Mediterranean.
text: The ship steamed out of the harbour.
text: “Yes, Tennington, of course,” ventured Clayton; “it must be a bully idea if you had it, but what the deuce is it? Goin’ to steam to China via the south pole?”
ref: 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 112:
text: We steamed easily across the first part of the Tay Bridge, and then after passing over the long spans in mid-stream we coasted smoothly down the 1 in 114 gradient, and around the sweeping curve through Esplanade Station.
ref: 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7:
glosses: To travel by means of steam power.
examples: text: If he heard of anyone picking the fruit he would steam off and lecture them.
text: The No on 35 drive garnered the support of Black, Asian, and progressive church communities, and steamed to victory with 58 percent of the vote on Nov. 6.
ref: 1990 December 16, Chris Nealon, “Washhington Paper Celebrates Les/Gay Unions”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 6:
text: That was the hard work largely done as the Ivorian waited for Malouda to steam into the box before releasing a simple crossed pass which the Frenchman side-footed home with aplomb.
ref: 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC:
glosses: To move with great or excessive purposefulness.
examples: text: like inward fire that outward smoke had steemd
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To exhale.
Derived terms: asteam
steamer
steaming
steam off
steam up