vaporize

[vey-puh-rahyz] /ˈveɪ pəˌraɪz/
verb (used with object), vaporized, vaporizing.
1.
to cause to change into vapor.
verb (used without object), vaporized, vaporizing.
2.
to become converted into vapor.
3.
to indulge in boastful talk; speak braggingly.
Also, especially British, vaporise.
Origin
1625-35; vapor + -ize
Related forms
vaporizable, adjective
revaporize, verb, revaporized, revaporizing.
unvaporized, adjective
Can be confused
evanesce, evaporate, liquefy, melt, thaw, transpire, vaporize.
Examples from the web for vaporize
  • Lots of power would be needed to vaporize the tailings.
  • Heat from their pulses tends to build up and vaporize healthy tissue.
  • Add it to powdered heroin and the mixture will vaporize at a lower temperature, making it easier to chase the dragon.
  • Some humidifiers vaporize water through sound waves.
  • It's straight out of a science fiction movie: using lasers to vaporize matter.
  • Even when you get to the boiling point, you would have to keep adding energy to vaporize the steel.
  • Often this is remedied with glow plugs, which are heated by the battery and help warm up the fuel so it can vaporize.
  • The metal is kept in a water-cooled crucible and exposed to the electron beam, causing it to vaporize and condense on the wafers.
British Dictionary definitions for vaporize

vaporize

/ˈveɪpəˌraɪz/
verb
1.
to change or cause to change into vapour or into the gaseous state
2.
to evaporate or disappear or cause to evaporate or disappear, esp suddenly
3.
to destroy or be destroyed by being turned into a gas as a result of extreme heat (for example, generated by a nuclear explosion)
Derived Forms
vaporizable, vaporisable, adjective
vaporization, vaporisation, noun
Word Origin and History for vaporize
v.

1630s, from vapor + -ize. Originally "smoke tobacco;" later "convert into vapor" (1803), and "spray with fine mist" (1900). Related: Vaporized; vaporizing.

vaporize in Medicine

vaporize va·por·ize (vā'pə-rīz')
v. va·por·ized, va·por·iz·ing, va·por·iz·es
To convert or be converted into a vapor.

vaporize in Science
vapor
  (vā'pər)   

  1. The gaseous state of a substance that is normally liquid or solid at room temperature, such as water that has evaporated into the air. See more at vapor pressure, See also water vapor.

  2. A faintly visible suspension of fine particles of matter in the air, as mist, fumes, or smoke.

  3. A mixture of fine droplets of a substance and air, as the fuel mixture of an internal-combustion engine.


vaporize verb
Our Living Language  : The words vapor and steam usually call to mind a fine mist, such as that in the jet of water droplets near the spout of a boiling teakettle or in a bathroom after a shower. Vapor and steam, however, refer to the gaseous state of a substance. The fumes that arise when volatile substances such as alcohol and gasoline evaporate, for example, are vapors. The visible stream of water droplets rushing out of a teakettle spout is not steam. As the gaseous state of water heated past its boiling point, steam is invisible. Usually, there is a space of an inch or two between the spout and the beginning of the stream of droplets. This space contains steam. The steam loses its heat to the surrounding air, then falls below the boiling point and condenses in the air as water droplets. All liquids and solids give off vapors consisting of molecules that have evaporated from the substance. In a closed system, the vapor pressure of these molecules reaches an equilibrium at which the substance evaporates from the liquid (or solid) and recondenses on it in equal amounts.