fume

Etymology

From Middle English fume, from Old French fum (“smoke, steam, vapour”), from Latin fūmus (“vapour, smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”), from *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Doublet of thymus and thymos. More at dun, dusk, dust.

noun

1. A gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale.
   Don't stand around in there breathing the fumes while the adhesive cures.
   the fumes of new-shorn hay 1753, Thomas Warton, Ode
2. A material that has been vaporized from the solid or liquid state to the gas state and re-coalesced to the solid state.
   Lead fume is a greyish powder, mainly comprising lead sulfate.
3. Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control.
4. Anything unsubstantial or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination.
5. The incense of praise; inordinate flattery.
6. (obsolete) A passionate person.

verb

1. (transitive) To expose (something) to fumes; specifically, to expose wood, etc., to ammonia in order to produce dark tints.
2. (transitive) To apply or offer incense to.
   Tyrian garbs, / Neptunian Albion's high teſtaceous food [i.e., oysters], / And flavour'd Chian wines with incenſe fum'd / To ſlake Patrician thirſt: for theſe, their rights / In the vile ſtreets they proſtitute to ſale; / Their ancient rights, their dignities, their laws, / Their native glorious freedom. 1740, John Dyer, “The Ruins of Rome. A Poem.”, in Poems. … Viz. I. Grongar Hill. II. The Ruins of Rome. III. The Fleece, in Four Books, London: Printed by John Hughs, for Messrs. R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley,[…], published 1759, →OCLC, pages 42–43
3. (intransitive) To emit fumes.
   Young Chromis and Mnaſylus chanc'd to ſtray / Where (ſleeping in a cave) Silenus lay, / Whoſe conſtant cups fly fuming to his brain, / And always boil in each extended vein; / His truſty flaggon, full of potent juice, / Was hanging by, worn thin with age and uſe; … a. 1686, Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon], Samuel Johnson, “Virgil’s Sixth Eclogue, Silenus”, in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical,[…], volumes X (The Poems of Rochester, Roscommon, and Yalden), London: […] E. Cox; for C. Bathurst,[…], published 1779, page 234, →OCLC
4. (intransitive) To pass off in fumes or vapours.
5. (intransitive, figurative) To express or feel great anger.
   He’s still fuming about the argument they had yesterday.
6. (intransitive, figurative) To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied.