steam

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   cook something by letting steam pass over it

   just steam the vegetables

2. 2
   verb

   clean by means of steaming

   steam-clean the upholstered sofa

3. 3
   verb

   get very angry

   My indifference to their amorous advances really steamed them.

4. 4
   verb

   travel by means of steam power

   The ship steamed off into the Pacific

5. 5
   verb

   emit steam

   The rain forest was literally steaming

6. 6
   noun

   The act of cooking by steaming.

   Give the carrots a ten-minute steam.

7. 7
   noun

   Internal energy for progress or motive power.

   After three weeks in bed he was finally able to sit up under his own steam.

8. 8
   noun

   Pent-up anger.

   Dad had to go outside to blow off some steam.

Etymology

From Middle English steem, stem, from Old English stēam (“steam, hot exhalation, hot breath; that which emits vapour; blood”), from Proto-Germanic *staumaz (“steam, vapour, breath”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to whirl, waft, stink, shake; steam, haze, smoke”). Cognate with Scots stem, steam (“steam”), West Frisian steam (“steam, vapour”), Dutch stoom (“steam, vapour”), Low German stom (“steam”), Swedish dialectal stimma (“steam, fog”), Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”).