Word.ws English Dictionary

fume

UK/fjuːm/

fume noun: a gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale.

Noun

fume (plural fumes)

  1. A gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale.
    • Don't stand around in there breathing the fumes while the adhesive cures.
    • the fumes of new-shorn hay1753, Thomas Warton, Ode
    Synonyms:
    effluvium
  2. A material that has been vaporized from the solid or liquid state to the gas state and re-coalesced to the solid state.
    • Lead fume is a greyish powder, mainly comprising lead sulfate.
  3. Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control.
    • The Fumes of his Passion do as really intoxicate and confound his judging and discerning Faculty , as the Fumes of Drink discompose and stupify the Brain of a Man over - charged with it.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
    • In his execution of this mission, Mr Tinkler perhaps expressed that Mr Dorrit was in a raging fume.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC
  4. Anything unsubstantial or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination.
    • a show of fumes and fanciesa. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount...
  5. The incense of praise; inordinate flattery.
    • to smother him with fumes and eulogies1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
  6. (obsolete) A passionate person.

Verb

fume (third-person singular simple present fumes, present participle fuming, simple past and past participle fumed)

  1. (transitive) To expose (something) to fumes; specifically, to expose wood, etc., to ammonia in order to produce dark tints.
  2. (transitive) To apply or offer incense to.
    • Tyrian garbs, / Neptunian Albion's high teſtaceous food [i.e., oysters], / And flavour'd Chian wines with incenſe fum'd / To ſlake Patrician thirſt: for theſe, their rights / In the vile ſtreets they proſtitute to ſale; / Their ancient rights, their dignities, their laws, / Their native glorious...1740, John Dyer, “The Ruins of Rome. A Poem.”, in Poems. … Viz. I. Grongar Hill. II. The Ruins of Rome. III. The Fleece, in Four Books, London: Printed by John Hughs, for Messrs. R[obert] and J[ames]...
  3. (intransitive) To emit fumes.
    • where the golden altar fumed1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • Young Chromis and Mnaſylus chanc'd to ſtray / Where (ſleeping in a cave) Silenus lay, / Whoſe conſtant cups fly fuming to his brain, / And always boil in each extended vein; / His truſty flaggon, full of potent juice, / Was hanging by, worn thin with age and uſe; [...]a. 1686, Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon]; Samuel Johnson, “Virgil’s Sixth Eclogue, Silenus”, in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and...
  4. (intransitive) To pass off in fumes or vapours.
    • whose parts are kept from fuming away, not only by their fixity[…]1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin]...
  5. (figuratively, intransitive or reporting verb) To express or feel great anger.
    • He’s still fuming about the argument they had yesterday.
    • He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  6. (figuratively, intransitive) To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied.
    • Keep his brain fuming.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

fume meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

fume in Tamil

புகை, சீற்றம்

fume in Urdu

بخار, دھواں, بخار نکلنا

fume in Malayalam

പുക, ധൂപം, ക്രോധം, ക്ഷോഭം

fume in Kannada

ಹೊಗೆ, ಸಿಡಿಗುಟ್ಟು, ರೇಗು, ಕೋಪೋದ್ರೇಕಗೊಳ್ಳು
More languagesFewer languages
fume in Sanskrit
कुप् kup
fume in Arabic
إِسْتِشَاط غَضَبًا ʔistišāṭ ḡaḍaban, ثَار ṯār
fume in Malay
wasap

Examples of fume in a sentence

  • Her mother did fret, and her father did fume.1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field...
  • "[…] I think he has an elitist attitude and doesn't want poor people in his mall," fumed Bridge, who operates a store in Freeman's mall.1995 March 3, The Oregonian, page 21:
  • "Whoever is doing this is not just showing immense disrespect to me as a teacher, but also to the whole Torah and to this whole class and school!" he fumed.2019, Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve, Seal Press, page 73:

All 40 example sentences with fume

Synonyms of fume

Forms of fume

Noun
pluralfumes
Verb
third-person singular presentfumes
present participlefuming
past participlefumed
pastfumed

Plural of fume: fumes

Origin of fume

From Middle English fume, from Old French fum (“smoke, steam, vapour”), from Latin fūmus (“vapour, smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”), from *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Doublet of thymus and thymos. More at dun, dusk, dust.

Words formed from fume

Phrases with fume

Words that rhyme with fume

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fume

What does fume mean?
Fume means a gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale.
What is fume in Tamil?
Fume in Tamil is புகை, சீற்றம். See Fume meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fume in a sentence?
Her mother did fret, and her father did fume.
What part of speech is fume?
Fume can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce fume?
Fume is pronounced /fjuːm/ (UK).
What is the plural of fume?
The plural of fume is fumes.

Words near fume in the dictionary

  1. fumblingness
  2. fumblings
  3. fumbly
  4. fumdiddle
  5. fumdiddles
  6. fume
  7. fume cupboard
  8. fume cupboards
  9. fume date
  10. fume dates
  11. fume hood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fume (page history and authors); fume (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fume (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fume (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fume (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कुप् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fume.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fume.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fume. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.