evaporate

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹeɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈvæp.ə.ɹæɪt/

Verb

evaporate (third-person singular simple present evaporates, present participle evaporating, simple past and past participle evaporated)

1. (ergative) To transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state.

   Coordinate term: sublimate

   • 2016 February 1, Tom Whipple, “Microcannon firing nanobullets: the future of targeted medicine”, in The Times‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2025 January 29, Ashley Strickland, “Historic asteroid sample reveals the ‘building blocks of life are in fact extraterrestrial in origin,’ scientists say”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     McCoy’s team, including 66 researchers across four continents, found the salt and minerals left behind as water on Bennu, or its larger parent asteroid, evaporated. The minerals include sodium phosphates, carbonates, sulfates, chlorides and fluorides, some of which are necessary to the formation of life.

2. (transitive) To expel moisture from (usually by means of artificial heat), leaving the solid portion.

   to evaporate apples

3. (transitive, figuratively) To give vent to; to dissipate.
   • c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 8:

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

4. (intransitive, figurative) To disappear; to escape or pass off without effect.

   Near-synonym: go up in smoke

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Seditions and Troubles”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     To give moderate liberty for griefs to evaporate […] is a safe way.

   • 2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 – 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC Sport‎^[3]:

     The hosts initially looked like they lacked a spring in their step, but fears of further agony evaporated in the seventh minute with a goal of typical Arsenal quality.

5. (transitive, figurative) To cause to disappear or to escape or pass off without effect.
   • 1976 April 10, “Now What?”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

     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.

Derived terms

• coevaporate
• evaporative
• nonevaporated
• nonevaporating
• photoevaporate
• reevaporate
• unevaporated

Related terms

• evaporation
• evaporator
• vapour

Translations

(transitive or intransitive) to transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state

• Arabic: تَبَخَّرَ (tabaḵḵara)
• Bulgarian: изпарявам (bg) (izparjavam)
• Catalan: evaporar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蒸發掉 / 蒸发掉 (zhēngfā diào), 揮發 / 挥发 (zh) (huīfā)

• Czech: vypařit se (intransitive)
• Danish: fordampe (da)
• Dutch: verdampen (nl)
• Finnish: haihtua (fi); höyrystyä (fi)
• French: évaporer (fr) (transitive), s'évaporer (fr) (intransitive)
• German: verdampfen (de), verdunsten (de), evaporieren
• Greek: εξατμίζω (el) (exatmízo)
• Hungarian: párolog (hu), elpárolog (hu)
• Ido: vaporeskar (io)
• Indonesian: menguap (id)
• Interlingua: evaporar
• Italian: evaporare (it)
• Japanese: 蒸発する (ja) (じょうはつする, jōhatsu suru), 揮発する (ja) (きはつする, kihatsu suru), 気化する (ja) (きかする, kika suru)
• Maori: whakaeto
• Ottoman Turkish: اوچمق (uçmak)
• Polish: wyparowywać impf, wyparować pf (transitive), parować (pl)
• Portuguese: evaporar (pt)
• Romanian: evapora (ro), se vaporiza
• Russian: испаря́ть (ru) impf (isparjátʹ), испари́ть (ru) pf (isparítʹ) (transitive), испаря́ться (ru) impf (isparjátʹsja), испари́ться (ru) pf (isparítʹsja) (intransitive)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: испаравати

  Roman: isparavati (sh)

• Spanish: evaporar (es) (transitive), evaporarse (es) (intransitive)
• Sundanese: ngebul
• Swedish: avdunsta (sv), dunsta (sv), förångas (sv)
• Thai: ระเหย (th) (rá-hə̌əi)
• Ukrainian: випаро́вувати impf (vyparóvuvaty), ви́парувати pf (výparuvaty) (transitive), випаро́вуватися impf (vyparóvuvatysja), ви́паруватися pf (výparuvatysja) (intransitive)
• Vietnamese: bốc hơi (vi), bay hơi (vi)
• Welsh: tawchu

to expel moisture from

• Finnish: kuivata (fi)
• German: dörren (de), ausdörren
• Romanian: seca (ro)
• Swedish: avdunsta (sv)

to give vent to

• Finnish: esittää (fi), tuulettaa (fi)

to disappear

• Finnish: haihtua (fi), häipyä (fi)
• German: verschwinden (de), verduften (de)
• Swedish: dunsta (sv)

Adjective

evaporate (comparative more evaporate, superlative most evaporate)

1. (obsolete) evaporated

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

evaporate

1. inflection of evaporare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

evaporate f pl

1. feminine plural of evaporato

Anagrams

• operavate

Latin

Participle

ēvapōrāte

1. vocative masculine singular of ēvapōrātus

Spanish

Verb

evaporate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of evaporar combined with te