fumes

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.

   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
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.

See all 12 meanings of fume