vaporous
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English vaporous, from Late Latin vapōrōsus (“full of steam”), from Latin vapor (“exhalation; smoke; steam, vapour”) (possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *kwep- (“to boil; to smoke, steam; aroma; strong odour”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, overly, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is analysable as vapour + -ous. Possibly a doublet of hope.
Cognates
* French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”)
* Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”)
* Portuguese vaporoso
* Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)
Base: vapour
Affixes: -ous
Inflected forms:
form: more vaporous
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most vaporous
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: vapourous
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
pos: adj
examples: Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]
The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.
gloss: Breathing out or giving off vapour.
pos: adj
gloss: Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
pos: adj
examples: O hatefull, vaporous, and foggy night, / Since thou art guilty of my cureleſſe crime: / Muſter thy miſts to meete the Eaſterne light, / Make vvar againſt proportion'd courſe of time.
[W]e ſee that the very aire it ſelfe is never conglaciate nor frozen, nor hardened, conſidering that miſts, fogs and clouds are no congealations, but onely gatherings and thickenings of a moiſt and vapourous aire: for the true aire indeed vvhich hath no vapour at all and is altogether drie, admitteth no ſuch refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth ^([sic]).
Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
[I]t applied itself lustily to the pipe and sent forth such abundant volleys of tobacco smoke that the small cottage kitchen became all vaporous.
gloss: Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
pos: adj
examples: Wide sea, that one continuous murmur breeds / Along the pebbled shore of memory! / Many old rotten-timber'd boats there be / Upon thy vaporous bosom, magnified / To goodly vessels; many a sail of pride, / And golden keel'd, is left unlaunch'd and dry.
gloss: Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: So vvhoſoeuer ſhall entertaine high and vapourous imaginations, in ſteede of a laborious and ſober inquiry of truth ſhall beget hopes and Beliefes of ſtrange and impoſſible ſhapes.
Now I recenter my immortal mind / In the deep sabbath of meek self-content; / Cleans'd from the vaporous passions that bedim / God's Image, sister of the Seraphim.
The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, / The vapourous exultation not to be confined!
B****, the mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic; […]
How! have I slept? Shame on my vaporous brain!
[I]t was momentarily within his imagination that the provision for him might come in some way from his mother. But such vaporous conjecture passed away as quickly as it came.
gloss: Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: [A]irily-attired ladies were lounging upon the chairs in the gardens of the Tuileries; only the most fragile and vaporous bonnets were to be seen in the Bois de Boulogne; […]
She carried herself no less attentively than usual, and kept no less anxious an eye upon her vaporous skirts; she held her bouquet very tight, and counted over the flowers for the twentieth time.
gloss: Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.
pos: adj
examples: The task at first daunted him, and he wailed to Mary that he could not write about the Florentines because he no longer enjoyed them as a school. Again Mary rescued him from his vaporous mood, and the two of them vigorously plunged into the new work.
Related words: vapography
vaporability
vaporable
vaporarium
vaporary
vaporate
vaporation
vapored
vapoured
vaporer
vapourer
vaporescence
vaporescent
vapourescent
vaporgraph
vapourgraph
vaporiferous
vaporific
vaporiform
vaporimeter
vaporing
vapouring
vaporisable
vaporizable
vaporisation
vaporization
vaporised
vaporized
vapourised
vapourized
vaporiser
vaporizer
vaporise
vaporize
vapourise
vapourize
vaporish
vapourish
vaporless
vapourless
vaporlike
vapourlike
vaporograph
vaporography
vaporose
vaporosity
vapor
vapour
vaporware
vapourware
vapory
vapoury
nebulous
Derived words: nonvaporous
vaporously
vaporousness
Translations: