FUME • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Fume

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/fjum/ Listen

noun

Fume n.

1.

Exhalation; volatile matter (esp. noxious vapor or smoke) ascending in a dense body; smoke; vapor; reek; as, the fumes of tobacco. "The fumes of new shorn hay." "The fumes of undigested wine."

2.

Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control; as, the fumes of passion.

3.

Anything vaporlike, unsubstantial, or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination. "A show of fumes and fancies."

4.

The incense of praise; inordinate flattery. "To smother him with fumes and eulogies."

5.

(Metal.) Solid material deposited by condensation of fumes; as, lead fume (a grayish powder chiefly lead sulphate).

In a fume, in ill temper, esp. from impatience.

verb

Fume v. t.

1.

To expose to the action of fumes; to treat with vapors, smoke, etc.; as, to bleach straw by fuming it with sulphur; to fill with fumes, vapors, odors, etc., as a room. "She fumed the temple with an odorous flame."

2.

To praise inordinately; to flatter. "They demi-deify and fume him so."

3.

To throw off in vapor, or as in the form of vapor. "The heat will fume away most of the scent." "How vicious hearts fume frenzy to the brain!"

Fume v. i. (past & past part. fumed; pres. part. fuming)

1.

To smoke; to throw off fumes, as in combustion or chemical action; to rise up, as vapor. "Where the golden altar fumed." "Silenus lay, Whose constant cups lay fuming to his brain."

2.

To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied. "Keep his brain fuming."

3.

To pass off in fumes or vapors. "Their parts are kept from fuming away by their fixity."

4.

To be in a rage; to be hot with anger. "He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground." "While her mother did fret, and her father did fume."

To fume away, to give way to excitement and displeasure; to storm; also, to pass off in fumes.

See images of 'Fume'

Etymology of 'Fume'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Fume" Quotes from Famous Books

... whist-player, was a connoisseur in women and horses, but in other things he was apathetic and sluggish as a seal, and to rouse him from his lethargy something extraordinary and quite revolting was needed, and then he would forget everything in the world and display intense activity; he would fume and talk of a duel, write a petition of seven pages to a Minister, gallop at breakneck speed about the district, call some one publicly "a scoundrel," would go to law, and ...

— The Duel and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... But the exquisite serenity of the night sky, where swam the moon, "a silver splendour;" the freshness of the sweeping breeze that dashed, keen from the east, over the sea against his face; all the glorious distance, the unconsciousness and detachment of nature from the fume and misery of life, brought him unwittingly ...

— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle

... When you see a thin blue fume rising from it, it is hot enough. That is the sign. If you do not look closely it may escape your notice, for it is only a thin fume you want, not a thick smoke. If we were to let the fat remain till it smoked it ...

— Little Folks (October 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... I fairly safe to-night—110 And with proud cause my heart is light: [15] I trespassed lately worse than ever— But Heaven has blest [16] a good endeavour; And, to my soul's content, [17] I find The evil One is left behind. 115 Yes, let my master fume and fret, Here am I—with my horses yet! My jolly team, he finds that ye Will work for nobody but me! Full proof of this the Country gained; 120 It knows how ye were vexed and strained, And forced unworthy stripes to bear, When ...

— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III • William Wordsworth

... that problem embraces the total mystery of volatile power in substance; and of the visible states consequent on sudden—and presumably, therefore, imperfect—vaporization; as the smoke of frankincense, or the sacred fume of modern devotion which now fills the inhabited world, as that of the rose and violet its deserts. What,—it would be useful to know, is the actual bulk of an atom of orange perfume?—what of one of vaporized tobacco, or gunpowder?—and ...

— The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century - Two Lectures delivered at the London Institution February - 4th and 11th, 1884 • John Ruskin

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com