Vap
(Vap) n. [See Vapid.] That which is vapid, insipid, or lifeless; especially, the lifeless part of liquor
or wine. [Obs.]
In vain it is to wash a goblet, if you mean to put into it nothing but the dead lees and vap of wine.
Jer.
Taylor. Vapid
(Vap"id) a. [L. vapidus having lost its lire and spirit, vapid; akin to vappa vapid wine, vapor vapor.
See Vapor.] Having lost its life and spirit; dead; spiritless; insipid; flat; dull; unanimated; as, vapid beer; a
vapid speech; a vapid state of the blood.
A cheap, bloodless reformation, a guiltless liberty, appear flat and vapid to their taste.
Burke. — Vap"id*ly adv. — Vap"id*ness, n.
Vapidity
(Va*pid"i*ty) n. The quality or state of being vapid; vapidness.
Vapor
(Va"por) n. [OE. vapour, OF. vapour, vapor, vapeur, F. vapeur, L. vapor; probably for cvapor,
and akin to Gr. smoke, to breathe forth, Lith. kvepti to breathe, smell, Russ. kopote fine soot. Cf.
Vapid.] [Written also vapour.]
1. (Physics) Any substance in the gaseous, or aëriform, state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of
a liquid or solid.
The term vapor is sometimes used in a more extended sense, as identical with gas; and the difference
between the two is not so much one of kind as of degree, the latter being applied to all permanently
elastic fluids except atmospheric air, the former to those elastic fluids which lose that condition at ordinary
temperatures. The atmosphere contains more or less vapor of water, a portion of which, on a reduction
of temperature, becomes condensed into liquid water in the form of rain or dew. The vapor of water
produced by boiling, especially in its economic relations, is called steam.
Vapor is any substance in the gaseous condition at the maximum of density consistent with that condition.
This is the strict and proper meaning of the word vapor.
Nichol. 2. In a loose and popular sense, any visible diffused substance floating in the atmosphere and impairing
its transparency, as smoke, fog, etc.
The vapour which that fro the earth glood [glided].
Chaucer.
Fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word.
Ps. cxlviii. 8. 3. Wind; flatulence. [Obs.] Bacon.
4. Something unsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
James
iv. 14. 5. pl. An old name for hypochondria, or melancholy; the blues. "A fit of vapors." Pope.
6. (Pharm.) A medicinal agent designed for administration in the form of inhaled vapor. Brit. Pharm.
Vapor bath. (a) A bath in vapor; the application of vapor to the body, or part of it, in a close place; also,
the place itself. (b) (Chem.) A small metallic drying oven, usually of copper, for drying and heating
filter papers, precipitates, etc.; — called also air bath. A modified form is provided with a jacket in the
outside partition for holding water, or other volatile liquid, by which the temperature may be limited exactly
to the required degree. — Vapor burner, a burner for burning a vaporized hydrocarbon. — Vapor
