evaporate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹeɪt/
ipa: /ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹæɪt/
Forms: form: evaporates
form: evaporating
form: evaporated
form: evaporated
Etymology: First attested in 1545, borrowed from Latin ēvapōrātus, the perfect passive participle of ēvapōrō (“to evaporate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). See also Middle English evaporaten (“to draw off humors or "spirits" as "vapor"”) and evaporen (“to draw off bodily fluid, an excess or toxic matter by converting it into "vapor"; to treat (a part of the body) by drawing off toxic matter converted into "vapor"”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Senses: examples: text: When an ultrasonic beam is fired at the microcannons, the emulsion evaporates, expanding rapidly into gas. This creates enough force to push the nanobullets out at velocities reaching several metres per second.
ref: 2016 February 1, Tom Whipple, “Microcannon firing nanobullets: the future of targeted medicine”, in The Times:
text: McCoy’s team, including 66 researchers across four continents, found the salt and minerals left behind as water on Bennu, or its larger parent asteroid, evaporated. The minerals include sodium phosphates, carbonates, sulfates, chlorides and fluorides, some of which are necessary to the formation of life.
ref: 2025 January 29, Ashley Strickland, “Historic asteroid sample reveals the ‘building blocks of life are in fact extraterrestrial in origin,’ scientists say”, in CNN:
coordinate_terms: sublimate
glosses: To transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state.
examples: text: to evaporate apples
glosses: To expel moisture from (usually by means of artificial heat), leaving the solid portion.
examples: text: [M]y lord of Eſſex choſe to evaporate his thoughts in a Sonnet (being his common vvay) to be ſung before the Queen, […]
ref: c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 8:
glosses: To give vent to; to dissipate.
examples: text: Near-synonym: go up in smoke
text: To give moderate liberty for griefs to evaporate […] is a safe way.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Seditions and Troubles”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
text: The hosts initially looked like they lacked a spring in their step, but fears of further agony evaporated in the seventh minute with a goal of typical Arsenal quality.
ref: 2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 – 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To disappear; to escape or pass off without effect.
examples: text: Gay people have belabored on this issue far too long and far too hard to allow the efforts of years to be evaporated through this obscene ruling. Our fights will continue, if not in the courts, then in the legislatures.
ref: 1976 April 10, “Now What?”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
glosses: To cause to disappear or to escape or pass off without effect.
Derived terms: coevaporate
evaporative
nonevaporated
nonevaporating
photoevaporate
reevaporate
unevaporated
Related terms: evaporation
evaporator
vapour