Forms: 5 exale, 6 exhall, 7 exhael, 8 exhal, 7– exhale. [ad. F. exhaler, ad. L. exhālā-re to breathe out, evaporate, f. ex- out + hālāre to breathe.]
I. To give, pass, or draw off in vapor.
1. trans. To breathe, give forth, or disengage from the surface; to send up (fumes, gas, vapor, etc.); to give off in vapor. Also fig.
a. 1628. Sir J. Beaumont, Epiph., in Farr, S. P. Jas. I. (1848), 144. We shall exhale our vapours vp direct.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 29. It had lost near two drams of its former weight, which was exhaled by insensible Transpiration.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 421. Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale, From her moist Continent to higher Orbes.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iv. (1840), 103. The vapours which by their acquired heat they have exhaled.
1772. Sir W. Jones, Laura, Poems (1777), 80. Every bower exhal’d the sweets of May.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 248. This mineral water … exhales no perceptible smell.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxvii. 301. They [plants] exhale oxygen.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Civiliz., Wks. (Bohn), III. 38. Eloquence … may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and colour.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 67–8. Water … exhaled from the leaves of plants and from the lungs and skin of animals.
2. intr. Of vapor, perfume, † heat, etc.: To pass off into the air. Of a liquid, etc.: To pass off as vapor; to evaporate. Const. from, out of.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., II. iii. 149 (MS. B). Spirites exaleþ whyche þat buþ frendys, boþe to þe body & eke to þe soule.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 303. Se the floode be goode ther thou will duelle: For ofte of it exaleth myst impure.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 399. Fire doth lick up the Spirits and Blood of the Body, so as they exhale.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 66. Let it be melted … with a soft fire, that all the moisture may exhale.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 257. Cover the Earth with good Straw-Mats, that the Heat may not exhale too soon.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1730), II. xviii. § 6. The same has been observed as to Acid Liquors, by the sowre Smell that exhales from them.
1799. G. Smith, Laborat., I. 329. When the matrass is made red hot, sulphurous matters will exhale.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Worship, Wks. (Bohn), II. 407. When flowers reach their ripeness, incense exhales from them.
b. transf. and fig.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. vii. As if all our dearest friends lives had exhaled with his.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 255. When Orient Light Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 710/144.
| Straight all his Hopes exhal’d in empty Smoke; | |
| And his long Toils were forfeit for a Look. |
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, III. xviii. § 35. 561. His indignation exhaled in a letter to the Count d’Artois.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 174. The illusion and lifelikeness … exhales out of a picture as it grows old.
3. Phys. and Path. Of animal fluids: To pass off in minute quantities through a membrane or blood-vessel. Also in passive.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 126 (MS. A). Þei loken if ony þing exale out bi þilke rimelle—as blod or ony other mater.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 79. The fluid which the ultimate ramifications of the arteries exhale in it [the cellular tissue].
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 19. The extremities of the vessels simply spread themselves over large surfaces, whence the produced fluid exhales.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 401/1. Blood is … rarely exhaled at the internal surface of the bladder.
1865. R. Hunter, in Morn. Post, 28 March, 7/3. The blood merely oozes through the coats of the relaxed vessels—in medical phrase we say it is exhaled.
4. trans. To draw up or drive off in the form of vapor; to evaporate; rarely, † to draw up (a vapor); to draw out the perfume of (e.g., a rose).
1589. Nashe, in Greene’s Menaphon, Pref. (Arb.), 9. The Sea exhaled by drops, will in continuance be drie.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. v. 13. Yon Light … is some Meteor that the Sun exhales.
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 53. The Sunne exhales vapours from the Sea.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 413. The November Rose is the sweetest, having been less exhaled by the Sun.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 65. These Salts must … be calcined, which is done by exhaling their flegme.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 235. A prodigious Quantity of clear Water must be exhal’d, to get an Ounce of dry Sediments.
1825. Scott, Talism., i. Bitumen and sulphur, which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake.
1836. Emerson, Nature, Prospects, Wks. (Bohn), II. 173. The … filths of nature, the sun shall dry up, and the wind exhale.
b. transf. and fig.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 70. Thou, faire Sun, which on my earth doest shine, Exhalest this vapor-vow.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 105. Teares … not sufficient to exhale and evaporate the heavinesse of her heart.
1725–6. Pope, Odyss., XXII. 431. The warm sun exhales their soul away.
II. To breathe or blow forth from within.
5. To breathe out (life, soul, words, a prayer, etc.).
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 57. Hee exhaled into his eyes such deepe impression of his perfection, as that [etc.].
1611. Chapman, Iliad, XVIII. 196/258. Twelue men, of greatest strength in Troy, left with their liues exhald.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., I. xiii. § 3 (1622), 140. In these miserable torments, they both of them exhaled their execrable soules.
a. 1638. Mede, Chr. Sacrif., v. Wks. II. (1672), 362. An oration exhaled from sanctified souls.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. i. 355. And silent words Of mercy breathed from heaven will be exhaled … into thy wither’d heart.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., II. ix. 203. The Romans, conceived the soul … as exhaled with the dying breath.
6. To blow off (as steam); chiefly fig. to get rid of (enthusiasm, wrath, etc.) as if by blowing. Also, To exhale oneself. Cf. BLOW v. 10.
1745. Fortunate Orphan, 237. I exhaled my Grief in the bitterest Exclamations.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xi. 92. A. … suffered him to exhale his passion in … oaths.
1831. T. L. Peacock, Crotchet Castle, viii. 157. To narrate his misadventures, and exhale his budget of grievances.
1845. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), I. 341. I have exhaled myself with a paragraph or two in my journal on the sin of Brazilian slavery.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 9. Sulphur is exhaled from the volcanoes at the time of their activity.
1860. W. Collins, Wom. White, II. narr. viii. 245. I … exhale the rest of my enthusiasm in the open air.
1867. Month, 512. I could not exhale my wrath before his grace.
7. intr. To make an expiration; opposed to INHALE.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, iii. 54. When we exhale, we pour out from the lungs carbonic acid.
Hence Exhaled ppl. a. (in senses 1 and 4).
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 779. Let their exhald vnholdsome breaths make sicke The life of puritie. Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., V. i. 19. Will you … be no more an exhall’d Meteor.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., v. § 2 (1643), 180. That which we call a fired whirlwind, being an exhaled blast set on fire.
