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STEAM

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steam¹

  • /stiːm/ UK
  • /stiːm/ US

Rhymes with -iːm

Where it comes from

From Middle English steem, stem, from Old English stēam (“steam, hot exhalation, hot breath; that which emits vapour; blood”), from Proto-Germanic *staumaz (“steam, vapour, breath”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to whirl, waft, stink, shake; steam, haze, smoke”). Cognate with Scots stem, steam (“steam”), West Frisian steam (“steam, vapour”), Dutch stoom (“steam, vapour”), Low German stom (“steam”), Swedish dialectal stimma (“steam, fog”), Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”).

noun steams

  1. uncountable, usually The hot gaseous form of water, formed when water changes from the liquid phase to the gas phase (at or above its boiling point temperature).
  2. uncountable, usually Mist, fog.
  3. uncountable, usually Exhaled breath into cold air below the dew point of the exhalation.
  4. uncountable, usually Pressurized water vapour used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical energy.
  5. uncountable, usually The act of cooking by steaming. Give the carrots a ten-minute steam.
  6. figuratively, uncountable, usually Internal energy for progress or motive power. After three weeks in bed he was finally able to sit up under his own steam.
  7. figuratively, uncountable, usually Pent-up anger. Dad had to go outside to blow off some steam.
  8. uncountable, usually A steam-powered vehicle, referring to their use. Among the most modern of all the Pacific stock in Great Britain is the stud of "Merchant Navy" and "West Country" Pacifics on the Southern Region, and the rebuilding which is now being carried out, preserving all the best features of the Bulleid designs—such as the free-steaming boiler—and jettisoni
  9. uncountable, usually Travel by means of a steam-powered vehicle.
  10. obsolete, uncountable, usually Any exhalation. a steam of rich, distilled perfumes
  11. uncountable, usually Fencing without the use of any electric equipment.

verb steams · steaming · steamed

  1. transitive To cook with steam. The best way to cook artichokes is to steam them.
  2. figuratively, intransitive To be cooked with steam. The artichokes are steaming in the pot.
  3. transitive To expose to the action of steam; to apply steam to for softening, dressing, or preparing. to steam wood or cloth
  4. transitive To raise steam, e.g. in a steam locomotive. Until recently the mainstay of the line were four 2-8-2 + 2-8-2 Garratts, built for its opening. One is still steamed regularly, and there is no intention of breaking up the others, but the line has now been dieselised.
  5. intransitive To produce or vent steam. See, ſee, my Brother's Ghoſt hangs hovering there, / O're his vvarm Blood, that ſteems into the Air, / Revenge, Revenge it cries.
  6. intransitive To rise in vapour; to issue, or pass off, as vapour. Our breath steamed in the cold winter air.
  7. figuratively, intransitive To become angry; to fume; to be incensed.
  8. figuratively, transitive To make angry. It really steams me to see her treat him like that.
  9. transitive To cover with condensed water vapor. With all the heavy breathing going on the windows were quickly steamed in the car.
  10. intransitive To travel by means of steam power. We steamed around the Mediterranean.
  11. figuratively, literally To move with great or excessive purposefulness. If he heard of anyone picking the fruit he would steam off and lecture them.
  12. obsolete To exhale. like inward fire that outward smoke had steemd

adjective

  1. not comparable Old-fashioned; from before the digital age. Tom Earle, a CBC radio veteran now compiling audio archives in Ottawa, used to refer to the medium in which he worked as "steam radio"

STEAM²

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism, uncountable Initialism of serial time-encoded amplified microscopy.serial time-encoded amplified microscopy
  2. abbreviation, uncountable Abbreviation of science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, a grouping of several fields of education.science

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