Evaporate

//ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹæɪt// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state. ergative

    "When an ultrasonic beam is fired at the microcannons, the emulsion evaporates, expanding rapidly into gas. This creates enough force to push the nanobullets out at velocities reaching several metres per second."

  2. 2
    become less intense and fade away gradually wordnet
  3. 3
    To expel moisture from (usually by means of artificial heat), leaving the solid portion. transitive

    "to evaporate apples"

  4. 4
    lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue wordnet
  5. 5
    To give vent to; to dissipate. figuratively, transitive

    "[M]y lord of Eſſex choſe to evaporate his thoughts in a Sonnet (being his common vvay) to be ſung before the Queen, […]"

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    change into a vapor wordnet
  2. 7
    To disappear; to escape or pass off without effect. figuratively, intransitive

    "Near-synonym: go up in smoke"

  3. 8
    cause to change into a vapor wordnet
  4. 9
    To cause to disappear or to escape or pass off without effect. figuratively, transitive

    "Gay people have belabored on this issue far too long and far too hard to allow the efforts of years to be evaporated through this obscene ruling. Our fights will continue, if not in the courts, then in the legislatures."

Adjective
  1. 1
    evaporated obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
meltaerateaerifyair-dryanhydrateatomize

Example

More examples

"For things that have had contents with volatile oil like thinners they should be left for a few days to completely evaporate it before being disposed of as non-flammable waste."

Etymology

First attested in 1545, borrowed from Latin ēvapōrātus, the perfect passive participle of ēvapōrō (“to evaporate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). See also Middle English evaporaten (“to draw off humors or "spirits" as "vapor"”) and evaporen (“to draw off bodily fluid, an excess or toxic matter by converting it into "vapor"; to treat (a part of the body) by drawing off toxic matter converted into "vapor"”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.