vapoury

English

Alternative forms

• vapory (US)

Etymology

vapour +‎ -y

Adjective

vapoury (comparative more vapoury, superlative most vapoury)

1. Resembling or characteristic of vapour.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 222:

     At this moment Guido, who knew how disagreeable the subject must be to his sister, drew their attention to those golden slants of sunshine which seem to come so direct from heaven to earth,—bright and vapoury ladders,—fitting steps for our vain wishes to mount above; and just then so distinct from the dark mass of shadow flung from the deep forest in the distance.

   • 1869, Lewis Carroll, Phantasmagoria‎^[1], Canto I:

     And still he seemed to grow more white, / More vapoury, and wavier— / Seen in the dim and flickering light, / As he proceeded to recite / His “Maxims of Behaviour.”

   • 1921, Lafcadio Hearn, “Karma”, in Karma and Other Stories and Essays‎^[2], London: George G. Harrap & Co., page 40:

     And those white shapes enfolding her were surely never bridal veils, but vapoury wings that rose above her golden head, and swept down curving to her feet.

     See also quotations under vapory.

2. (archaic) Affected with the vapours; peevish.