asteam

Adjective

asteam (not comparable)

1. Giving off steam, water vapour or smoke.
   • The rude turf building we found full from end to end, and all asteam with a particularly wet congregation, some of whom […] had travelled in the soaking drizzle from the further extremities of the island.1845, Hugh Miller, cited in Thomas Brown (ed.), Annals of the Disruption, Edinburgh: MacLaren & MacNiven, 1877, Part 2, p. 37
   • The fire burned here and there for a fortnight, and then there came a light shower or two that set the hills a-steam with opaque white smoke.1906, Oliver Onions, “Back o’ the Moon” in Back o’ the Moon and Other Stories, London: Hurst and Blackett, Chapter 17, p. 238

   Synonyms:

   steaming

2. Covered with condensation.
   • Sara, her eyeglasses asteam, was stirring a big pot of quahog chowder.1965, Stanton Forbes, chapter 2, in Relative to Death, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 27
   • “Go ahead!” he screamed, his glasses asteam and opaque. “We can’t read it anyway! Go ahead! Rain on it!”1987, Mitch Berman, Time Capsule, New York: Putnam, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 73

   Synonyms:

   fogged up