steam

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Definitions (49)

Toggle American Heritage Dictionary definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun The vapor phase of water.
  2. noun A mist of cooling water vapor.
  3. noun Pressurized water vapor used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical power.
  4. noun The power produced by a machine using pressurized water vapor.
  5. noun Steam heating.
  6. noun Power; energy.
  7. intransitive verb To produce or emit steam.
  8. intransitive verb To become or rise up as steam.
  9. intransitive verb To become misted or covered with steam.
  10. intransitive verb To move by means of steam power.
  11. intransitive verb Informal To become very angry; fume.
  12. transitive verb To expose to steam, as in cooking.

Toggle Century Dictionary definitions Century Dictionary (27)

  1. Vapor; a rising vapor; an exhalation. Fough! what a steam of brimstone Is here! B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, v. 4.
  2. Water in a gaseous state; the gas or vapor of water, especially at temperatures above 100° C. It has a specific gravity of 625 as compared with air under the same pressure. It liquefies at 100° C. (212° F), under a pressure of 14.7 pounds upon a square inch, or the mean pressure of the atmosphere at the sea-level. The temperature at which it liquefies diminishes with the pressure. Steam constantly rises from the surface of liquid water when not obstructed by impervious inclosures or covered by another gas already saturated with it. Its total latent heat of vaporization for 1 pound weight under a pressure of 76 centimeters of mercury (or 14.7 pounds to the square inch) is 965.7 British thermal units, or 536.5 calories for each kilogram. Its specific heat under constant pressure is 4805. (Regnault.) It is decomposed into oxygen and hvdrogen at temperatures between 1,000° and 2,000° C. (Deville.) In addition to the surface evaporation of water, the change from the liquid to the gaseous state takes place beneath the surface (the gas escaping with ebullition) whenever the temperature of the liquid is raised without a corresponding increase of pressure upon it. The temperature at which this occurs under any particular pressure is the boilingpoint for that pressure. The boiling-point of water under the atmospheric pressure at the sea-level is 100° C. or 212° F. Saturated steam has the physical properties common to all gases whose temperatures are near those of their liquefying-points, or the boiling-points of their liquids. Saturated steam when isolated, and superheated at temperatures from 100° to 110° C, and under constant pressure, expands with a given increase of temperature about five times as much as air, and at 186° C. about twice as much as air; and it must be raised to a temperature much higher than this before it will expand uniformly like air. The large quantity of latent heat in steam, its great elasticity, and the ease with which it may be condensed have rendered its use in engines more practicable than that of any other gaseous medium for the generation and application of mechanical power.
  3. Water in a visible vesicular condition produced by the condensation of vapor of water in air.
  4. Figuratively, force; energy. [Colloq.]
  5. A flame or blaze; a ray of light. Steem, or lowe of fyre. Flamma. Prompt. Parv., p. 473.
  6. Absolute steam-pressure. See pressure.
  7. Dead steam. Same as exhaust-steam.
  8. Dry steam saturated steam without any admixture of mechanically suspended water.
  9. High-pressure steam, low-pressure steam. See pressure.
  10. Live steam steam which has performed no work, or only part of its work, or which is or might be available for the performance of work in an engine.
  11. Saturated steam steam in contact with water at the same temperature. In this condition the steam is always at its con-deusing-point, which is also the boiling-point of the water with which it is in contact. In this it differs from superheated steam of equal tension, which has a temperature higher than its condensing-point at that tension, and higher than the boiling-point of water under the same pressure.
  12. Specific Steam-volume in thermodynamics. the volume which a unit of weight of steam assumes under specific conditions of temperature and pressure.
  13. Steam fire-engine. See fire-engine, 2.
  14. Steam jet-pump. See pump.
  15. Steam vacuum-pump. See vacuum-pump.
  16. Superheated steam steam which at any stated pressure has a higher temperature, and for any particular weight of it a greater volume, than saturated steam (which see, above) at the same pressure. Also called steam-gas.
  17. Total heat of steam. Same as steam-heat, 1.
  18. Wet steam steam holding water mechanically suspended, the water being in the form of spray or vesicles, or both.
  19. Anhydrous steam. Same as dry steam.
  20. Combined steam a mixture of superheated steam and wet steam sometimes advantageously employed to minimize the evils of boiler corrosion on the one hand and of priming on the other.
  21. Greasy steam steam with which a heavy oil or a grease has been mixed to furnish lubricant for the valves of the engine.
  22. Primary steam steam from the boiler, ready to enter and do work in the high-pressure or first cylinder in the series of a multiple-expansion engine.
  23. Secondary steam steam which has done its work in the high-pressure or first cylinder of a multiple-expansion engine and, having been exhausted therefrom, is ready to do work in the second cylinder of the series.
  24. Superdried steam superheated steam, or steam heated to a temperature above that of saturated steam at that pressure. The moisture which may have been present previous to the saturation temperature is dried out, and then additional heat is supplied. [Not in use in the United States.]
  25. Surcharged steam steam charged with heat above the quantity normal to it at that pressure; superheated steam. [Not in use in the United States.]
  26. Tertiary steam steam which has passed through the high-pressure or first stage of expansion in a multiple-expansion engine, and has been exhausted also from the cylinders of the second stage, and is about to enter upon the expansive working of the third stage in one or more cylinders.
  27. To raise steam. See raise.

Toggle GNU Webster's 1913 definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

  1. The elastic, aëriform fluid into which water is converted when heated to the boiling point; water in the state of vapor.
  2. To emit steam or vapor.
  3. To exhale.

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

  1. water at boiling temperature diffused in the atmosphere
  2. cook something by letting steam pass over it
  3. clean by means of steaming
  4. get very angry
  5. travel by means of steam power
  6. rise as vapor
  7. emit steam

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