vaporous

Adjective

vaporous (comparative more vaporous, superlative most vaporous)

1. Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
   • Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.1651, Alazonomastix Philalethes [pseudonym; Henry More], “Sect[ion] VII”, in The Second Lash of Alazonomastix; Conteining a Solid and Serious Reply to a Very Uncivill Answer to Certain Observations...
   • For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]1868, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Book I”, in The Spanish Gypsy: A Poem, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 50

   Synonyms:

   halitous, halituous, vaporiform, vaporlike, vapourlike, vaporose, vapory, vapoury, aeriform, aereous

   Antonyms:

   nonvaporous

2. Breathing out or giving off vapour.

   Synonyms:

   vaporescent, vapourescent

3. Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
   • 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.1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature F3, verso
   • [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...1603, Plutarch, “Of the Primitive or First Colde”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 998

   Synonyms:

   fumid, vapored, vapoured, vaporiferous, vaporsome

4. Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
   • 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.1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 16–21
5. (figuratively) Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
   • 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.1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for...
   • 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.1796 December 24–26 (date written), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Ode on the Departing Year”, in Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems, London: Rest Fenner, […], published 1817, →OCLC, stanza IX...

   Synonyms:

   frothy, vain, vaporsome

6. (figuratively) Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
   • [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; […]1863, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Braddon, “Victor Bourdon Goes Over to the Enemy”, in Eleanor’s Victory. […], volume III, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 235
   • 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.1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XLIII, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 381
7. Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.
   • 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.1979, Ernest Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur, page 228