foam
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: fōm
ipa: /foʊm/
enpr: fōm
ipa: /fəʊm/
rhymes: -əʊm
Forms: form: foams
Etymology: From Middle English fom, foom, from Old English fām, from Proto-West Germanic *faim, from Proto-Germanic *faimaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHy-m-os, from *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”). Cognate with German Feim (“foam”), Latin spūma (“foam”), Latin pūmex (“pumice”), Sanskrit फेन (phéna, “foam”), possibly Northern Kurdish fê (“epilepsy”).
Senses: examples: text: Similarly, the biotech giant Cargill has begun manufacturing a polymer from vegetable oils that is used in polyurethane foams, which is found in beddings, furniture and car-seat headrests.
ref: 2008 April 9, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods”, in The New York Times:
text: Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.
ref: 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:
synonyms: froth
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially
examples: text: ’Tis thou that rigg’st the bark and plough’st the foam,
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Lyrical Ballads, London: J. & A. Arch, p. 12,
The breezes blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow follow’d free: / We were the first that ever burst / Into that silent Sea.
text: And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest […] and the river was tormented into foam […]
ref: 1838, Edgar Allan Poe, “Siope”, in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, volume 2, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, published 1840, page 22:
text: Many [of the fish-traps] were full of fish that raised foam as they splashed about.
ref: 1969, Elechi Amadi, chapter 5, in The Great Ponds,, London: Heinemann, published 1970, page 45:
synonyms: froth
surf
spindrift
spume
spray
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:
A collection of small bubbles created when the surface of a body of water is moved by tides, wind, etc.
examples: text: “Again. Tell it again!” cried Fagin, tightening his grasp on Sikes, and brandishing his other hand aloft as the foam flew from his lips.
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 190:
text: The horses were flecked with foam and their breathing was noisy.
ref: 1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 9, in The Horse and His Boy, London: Collins, published 1974, page 118:
synonyms: froth
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:
A collection of small bubbles formed from bodily fluids such as saliva or sweat.
examples: text: a quart jug with a crown of foam upon it
ref: 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 21, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 122:
text: The last of the milk vanished in a swirl of foam and gurgling.
ref: 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 15, in The Yearling, New York: Scribner, page 174:
text: It was a very good palm-wine and powerful, for in spite of the palm fruit hung across the mouth of the pot to restrain the lively liquor, white foam rose and spilled over.
ref: 1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 8, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959, part 1, page 74:
text: A slender thread of soft-drink foam traced her upper lip;
ref: 1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, New York: Viking, Part 2, p. 167:
synonyms: froth
effervescence
fizz
head
mousse
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:
A collection of small bubbles on the surface of a liquid that is heated, fermented or carbonated.
examples: text: […] she concentrated on the foam in the sink, tempering the water.
ref: 1964, Saul Bellow, Herzog, New York: Viking, page 255:
text: Later we shared a bath with foam up to our ears, like they always discreetly have in films.
ref: 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 7, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 163:
synonyms: froth
lather
suds
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:
A collection of small bubbles created by mixing soap with water.
topics: firefighting
government
synonyms: froth
glosses: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:
A collection of small bubbles formed by mixing an extinguishing agent with water, used to cover and extinguish fires.
examples: text: A foam mat can soften a hard seat.
glosses: A material formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid.
examples: text: He is in Europe, across the foam.
text: How slowly does sad Time his feathers moue? / Hast thee O fayrest Planet to thy home / Within the Westerne fome:
ref: 1595, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion:
text: You must dwell beyond the foam, / But I am safe and live at home.
ref: 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Foreign Children”, in A Child’s Garden of Verses, London: Longmans, Green, page 34:
text: But as for me, I'd sooner be
A-roaring here at home
About the rolling, roaring life
Of them that sails the foam.
ref: 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 171:
glosses: The sea.
glosses: Fury, rage, ire.
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: Sneakers.
Derived terms: antifoam
befoam
biofoam
defoam
foamable
foamback
foam bath
foamboard
foam board
foambow
foam cell
foamcore
foam core
foam finger
foam-flecked
foamflower
foam hand
foamie
foaminess
foamless
foamlike
foam party
foam roller
foam rubber
foamy
geofoam
in a foam
macrofoam
meadowfoam
memory foam
microfoam
nanofoam
nonfoam
polyfoam
quantum foam
sail foam
seafoam
shave foam
shaving foam
soap foam
spin foam
spray foam
sticky foam
styrofoam
temper foam
unfoam
vanishing foam