Also 5 feum, 6 fewme. [a. OF. fum masc. = Pr. fum, Sp. humo (earlier fumo), Pg., It. fumo:—L. fūmus smoke; also OF. fume fem. in the same sense, a derivative (like fumée, which has been retained in mod.F.) of fumer, FUME v. The Eng. sb. may be in part a direct adaptation from the Latin.]

1

  I.  1. The volatile matter produced by and usually accompanying combustion; smoke. Also with a and in pl. Obs. or arch.

2

a. 1400[?].  Pety Iob, 279, in Hampole’s Wks. (Horstm.), II. 384. As frome the fyre departeth fume, So body and sowle a-sundre goth.

3

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 56. Wyth the fume he [angel] toke to heven his flyht.

4

1549–62.  Sternhold & H., Ps. xxi. 9. Like an Oven burn them, Lord, in fiery flames and fume.

5

1618.  Bolton, Florus, III. iv. 175–6. They sacrifice mans blood to the gods, quaffing if out of their Enemies Sculs, by this kinde of mockage defiling death as well with fire, as fume, and teare infants quicke out of their mothers wombs with torments.

6

1703.  Pope, Thebais, 600. While yet thin fumes from dying sparks arise.

7

1783.  Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 403. A copious black fume came from it.

8

1854–6.  Patmore, Angel in H., II. Epil. (1879), 259. A fresh-lit fire Sends forth to heaven great shows of fume.

9

  b.  Odorous smoke (e.g., that of incense, tobacco). † Indian fume: tobacco smoke.

10

c. 1400.  Sowdone Bab., 681. Thai brente Frankensense That smoked up so stronge The Fume in her presence.

11

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 34 b/1. It hath vertue tascende by the lightnes of the fume [of encence].

12

c. 1550.  H. Llwyd, The Treasury of Health (1585), C ij. Fume made of Roes lether, doth myghtyly sterre hym vp.

13

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 177. Whose fume is holsome ageynst reumes and heauynesse of the heade.

14

1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XI. (1626), 230. Meane-while Alcyone holy fumes presents To all the Gods.

15

1627.  Drayton, Moon Calf, Poems (1748), 172. In some six days journey, doth consume Ten pounds in suckets, and the Indian fume.

16

1697.  Bp. Patrick, Comm. Exod. xxx. 35. This was one of the most antient Ways of worshipping God;… the first Men making a Fume, by burning parts of Trees, and Shrubs, and Seeds, and Fruits.

17

1784.  Cowper, Task, IV. 473.

        There sit, involved and lost in curling clouds
Of Indian fume, and guzzling deep, the boor,
The lacquey and the groom.

18

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., ii. And the fumes of choice tobacco scent the air.

19

  † c.  Something used or prepared for producing aromatic vapor. Obs.

20

1540–1.  Elyot, Image Gov., 41. Duryng the time of his execucion the Emperour commaunded the beedile to crie, With fume shall he die, who fumes hath sold.

21

1656.  Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 219. Rulandus makes a fume of one dram of white Amber to take at the Mouth.

22

1665.  Pepys, Diary, 4 Nov. They suspect by their sending for plaister and fume, that it may be the plague.

23

1679.  Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 451. A julep, 3s 6d; a fume 2s.

24

1722.  De Foe, Plague (1884), 207. Nor did they go up and down the House with any assurance, till they had burnt a great variety of Fumes and Perfumes in all the Rooms, and made a great many Smoaks of Pitch, of Gunpowder, and of Sulphur, all separately shifted.

25

  2.  Odor or odorous exhalation (either fragrant or offensive) emitted from a substance, flower, etc.

26

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 251. Breke hem [braunchis of fenel] a litil with þi teeþ, and þan þou schalt blowe in his iȝ3 … þat þe fume of þe fenel mowe entre into his iȝe.

27

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 10 b/1. The fume & stenche of donge.

28

1509.  Hawes, The Pastime of Pleasure, IV. iv.

        I dyd than taste the aromatyke lycoure,
Fragraunt of fume, swete as any floure.

29

1599.  Life More, in Wordsw., Eccl. Biog. (1853), II. 47. The fume of hilicampana is very pleasing.

30

1610.  Fletcher, Faithf. Shepherdess, V. ii. Send a fume, and keep the air Pure and wholesome.

31

1658.  A. Fox, trans. Wurtz’ Surg., II. xiv. 115. When these [poultesses] are taken off from the Wound, there comes a great fume from the Wound, very moist and wet, which is a sure fore-runner and sign of putrefaction.

32

1718.  Freethinker, No. 92, ¶ 6. She … cannot bear the Fumes of the Table.

33

1739.  R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 17.

        Or downwards, without legal Notice, come
Forth from the treach’rous Passage of the Bum,
A horrid Fume shall straight your Crime proclaim
To ev’ry Nose; nor aught conceal your Shame.

34

1865.  Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Hymn to Proserpine, 95.

        Where the poppies are sweet as the rose in our world, and the red rose is white,
And the wind falls faint as it blows with the fume of the flowers of the night.

35

  † 3.  Vapor or steam given out by bodies when heated. Obs.

36

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 278. Stoppe it [þe vessel] faste, þat þer mowe come out þerof no fume.

37

1544.  Phaer, Regim. Lyfe (1553), C iv b. Receyuing the fume of the sayd decoccyon wythin the eyes.

38

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 93. The liver of a Roe sod in salt water, and the eyes of a purblinde man held over the fume or reek thereof, are cured of their blindeness.

39

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, iv. (1723), 236. Flowing out of the Mouth in Form of a Fume, or crasser Vapour.

40

  b.  The vapor given off by acids and volatile substances; said esp. of exhalations or vapors which are irritant, stifling, or the like. Rare in sing.

41

1665.  Hooke, Microgr., 229. Looking at bodies through the fumes of Aqua fortis.

42

1680.  Boyle, Scept. Chem., I. 87. The Predominant Fire will Carry up all the Volatile Elements Confusedly in one Fume.

43

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 319. The fumes of hot iron, copper, or any other heated metal.

44

1800.  Med. Jrnl., IV. 467. The nitrat of pneum … discharges the acid in red fumes.

45

1834.  J. Forbes, Laennec’s Dis. Chest (ed. 4), 65. The inhalation of acrid fumes, particularly those of chlorine, vinegar, and other acids, sometimes it gives rise to pulmonary catarrh.

46

1879.  Geo. Gladstone, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 17/1. The fume when given off from the furnace appears as a dense white smoke.

47

  c.  An exhalation or watery vapor rising from the earth, the sea, etc.

48

1549.  Compl. Scot., vi. 38. Al corrupit humiditeis, ande caliginus fumis … that hed bene generit in the sycond regione of the ayr.

49

1602.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., I. Wks. 1856, I. 11. I descry a fume Creeping from out the bosome of the deepe.

50

1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. i. 12 The profit of mans industrie is no lesse apparent in manuring the ground, and opening the vpper face of the Earth: which being composed of diuerse substances, sendeth forth many times certaine hot fumes and vapours, which in many cold Countreyes mollify the vsuall rigour of the Aire, which most offends the Inhabitants.

51

1755.  B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sc., xv. 103. A prodigious Quantity of Fume and Vapours flying off from the Body of the Comet.

52

1828.  J. H. Moore, Pract. Navig. (ed. 20), 127. The sun’s rays upon the earth cause vapours or fumes to be continually rising from it.

53

1875.  W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 62. The fissure is filled with fume and spray.

54

  4.  A vapor or exhalation produced as an ‘excrement’ of the body; esp. a noxious vapor supposed formerly to rise to the brain from the stomach (now chiefly as the result of drinking ‘strong’ or alcoholic liquors).

55

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 163. Þe lungis drawiþ eir into þe herte, for to do awei þe fume and þe untemprid heete of þe herte.

56

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, 3880. Whan the paunch is fulle, A fume clymbethe up into the hede.

57

1548–77.  Vicary, Anat., ii. (1888), 24. The Nayles … are a superfluitie of members, engendred of great earthly smoke or fume.

58

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 1050. Grosser sleep, Bred of unkindly fumes.

59

1697.  J. Potter, Antiq. Greece, II. xiii. (1715), 309. Dreams were believ’d to proceed from the Fumes of the last Night’s Supper, than any Divine or Supernatural Cause.

60

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. viii. The wine … raise[d] disagreable fumes from the stomach into the head.

61

1806.  Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), 203. The fumes of the whisky had taken possession of his brain.

62

1844.  Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. lxiii. 240. The fumes of the wine at length thawed their reserve.

63

  II.  Figurative senses.

64

  5.  Something comparable to smoke or vapor as being unsubstantial, transient, imaginary, etc.

65

  When used with reference to flattery, the word has often a mixture of the notions of ‘incense’ (1 b). and of sense 6.

66

1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, II. i. Fainte praise that is goten with feare or by flaterars gyuen … is but fume whiche is supported by silence prouoked by menacis.

67

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 196. Loue, is a smoake made with the fume of sighes.

68

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. i. § 6. 10. Such Naturall Philosophie … shall not vanish in the fume of subtile, sublime, or delectable speculation.

69

1613–8.  S. Daniel, The Collection of the Historie of England (1626), 4. Claudius the Emperor; who hauing much of the fume of glory, and little fire to raise it otherwhere: casts an especiall eye on this Prouince, to make it the pompous matter of his triumph.

70

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr. (1651), 34. To smother him with fumes and eulogies.

71

1648.  Milton, Observations on the Articles of Peace, Wks. (1851), 566. As if the known and try’d Constancy of that valiant Gentleman were to be bought with Court fumes.

72

1784.  Cowper, Task, III. 169.

                        Great pity too,
That having wielded th’ elements, and built
A thousand systems, each in his own way,
They should go out in fume and be forgot?

73

1843.  Lefevre, Life Trav. Phys., I. I. ix. 198. The fumes of philosophical reasoning were dissipated by more material … ingredients.

74

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, liv. 1.

        Otho’s head is very dwarf; a rustic’s
  Shanks has Herius, only semi-cleanly;
  Libo’s airs to a fume of art refine them.

75

  6.  Something which ‘goes to the head’ and clouds the faculties or the reason.

76

1574.  Mirr. Mag., Sabrine, viii. For gelouzie … With frensies fume, enragde hir restles braine.

77

1610.  Shaks., Temp., V. i. 66.

        And as the morning steales vpon the night
(Melting the darkenesse) so their rising sences
Begin to chace the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their cleerer reason.

78

1691.  Hartcliffe, Virtues, 391. Vertue doth refine and purifie our Minds, by stifling the fumes and steams of every Vice and Passion.

79

1712.  Annisos, Spect., No. 281, ¶ 14. It dissipated the Fumes of Sleep and left me in an Instant broad awake.

80

1761–2.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), IV. lx. 517. The fumes of enthusiasm presently dissipate.

81

1865.  M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., ii. 75. Sometimes his head gets a little hot with the fumes of patriotism, and then he crosses the line, he loses perfect measure, he declaims, he raises a momentary smile.

82

  7.  A fit of anger, an irritable or angry mood. Chiefly in phrase in a fume.

83

1522.  Skelton, Why not to Court, 421. In a fume or an hete Wardeyn of the Flete Set hym faste by the fete.

84

1535.  Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), 27. Softe & pacient, good wordis Tindale: and no furiouse fumes.

85

1539.  Taverner, Gard. Wysed., I. 27 b. He was in suche a fume, that he ranne vpon the yonge man, to haue beaten him.

86

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. v. Wks. 1856, I. 87–8.

                    Tis not true valors pride
To swagger, quarrel, sweare, stampe, rave, and chide,
To stab in fume of blood.

87

1654.  Trapp, Comm. Neh. iii. 20. He burst out in a heat, being angry both at himself and others … and in an holy fume, finished quickly.

88

1775.  Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 13 June. Every now and then a lady in a fume withdraws her name.

89

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 96, ‘Changing Quarters.’

        There’s Serjeant Cross, in fume and fret,
With little Mopsa, the coquette.

90

1865.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XXI. vi. X. 103. Kaiser Joseph, in a fume at this, shot-off an express to Bohemia.

91

  b.  One who is apt to ‘get into a fume.’ rare1.

92

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), II. 123. The notary’s wife was a little fume of a woman.

93

  III.  8. attrib. and Comb., as fume-black, -blind;fume-gallant (humorously), a smoker; fume-worts, a book-name for plants of the N. O. Fumariaceæ (Lindley, Veg. K., 1846, p. 435).

94

1573.  Art of Limming, 6. To make a fuime black called Sable.

95

a. 1618.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, Panaretus, 791. A rash Excesse of Courage boiling fell; whose fume-blind force … Resembles right a sightlesse Polyphem.

96

1621.  Venner, Tobacco, C 4 b. Let these fume-gallants enioy their vanity.

97

  Hence Fumeless a., free from fumes.

98

1864.  in Webster; and in later Dicts.

99