steam
/stiːm/ noun, verb, adjective
- noun 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).
- noun Mist, fog.
- noun Exhaled breath into cold air below the dew point of the exhalation.
- noun Pressurized water vapour used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical energy.
- noun The act of cooking by steaming. “Give the carrots a ten-minute steam.”
- noun (figuratively) Internal energy for progress or motive power. “After three weeks in bed he was finally able to sit up under his own steam.”
- noun (figuratively) Pent-up anger. “Dad had to go outside to blow off some steam.”
- noun A steam-powered vehicle, referring to their use.
- verb (transitive, cooking) To cook with steam. “The best way to cook artichokes is to steam them.”
- verb (intransitive, literal, figurative) To be cooked with steam. “The artichokes are steaming in the pot.”
- verb (transitive) To expose to the action of steam; to apply steam to for softening, dressing, or preparing. “to steam wood or cloth”
- verb (transitive) To raise steam, e.g. in a steam locomotive.
- verb (intransitive) To produce or vent steam.
- verb (intransitive) To rise in vapour; to issue, or pass off, as vapour. “Our breath steamed in the cold winter air.”
- verb (intransitive, figuratively) To become angry; to fume; to be incensed.
- verb (transitive, figuratively) To make angry. “It really steams me to see her treat him like that.”
- adjective Old-fashioned; from before the digital age.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The elastic, aëriform fluid into which water is converted when heated to the boiling points; water in the state of vapor.
- noun The mist formed by condensed vapor; visible vapor; --so called in popular usage.
- verb To emit steam or vapor.
- verb To rise in vapor; to issue, or pass off, as vapor.
Etymology [OE. stem, steem, vapor, flame, AS. steám vapor, smoke, odor; akin to D. stoom steam, perhaps originally, a pillar, or something rising like a pillar; cf. Gr. stand.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “steam”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details