Definition of "vaporous"
vaporous
adjective
comparative more vaporous, superlative most vaporous
Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
Quotations
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 upon Anthroposophia Theomagica, and Anima Magica Abscondita, London: […] J[ames] Flesher, published 1655, observation 24, page 234
The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.
1894, Ivan Dexter, “Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia. Founded on Natural Facts. Chapter XIV. A Mountain Tragedy.”, in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre’s Peninsula Advertiser, Adelaide, S.A.: Port Adelaide Newspaper and Printing Company; republished as Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia (eBook no. 1600641.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, May 2016
Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
Quotations
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, […], 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, admitteth no ſuch refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth.
1603, Plutarch, “Of the Primitive or First Colde”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, page 998
Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
1818 October, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, page 73
[I]t applied itself lustily to the pipe and sent forth such abundant volleys of tobacco smoke that the small cottage kitchen became all vaporous.
1852 February–March, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Feathertop; a Moralized Legend”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], new (2nd) edition, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1854, page 267
Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
Quotations
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. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], page 54, lines 16–21
(figuratively)
Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
Quotations
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 Henrie Tomes, […], folio 32, verso
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, stanza IX, page 58
[I]t was momentarily within his imagination that the provision for him might come in some way from his mother. But such vaporous conjecture passed away as quickly as it came.
1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVI, in Daniel Deronda, volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book II (Meeting Streams), page 321
Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
Quotations
[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, […], 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 […], page 381
Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.
Quotations
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