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  1. cooked with steam from boiling water: steamed dumplings.
  2. Informal. angry: She's really steamed about what you said yesterday.

Origin of steamed

First recorded in 1800–05


  4. an exhalation of a vapor or mist.
  5. Informal. power or energy.
verb (used without object)
  1. to emit or give off steam or vapor.
  3. to become covered with condensed steam, as a window or other surface (often followed by up).
  5. to move or travel by the agency of steam.
  7. Informal. to be angry or show anger: Fans are still steaming from Monday night’s sloppy 5-4 loss.
verb (used with object)
  2. to emit or exhale (steam or vapor).
  3. Informal. to cause to become irked or angry (often followed by up).
  2. propelled by or propelling with a steam engine.
  3. operated by steam.
  4. conducting steam: a steam line.
  5. bathed with or affected by steam.
  6. of or relating to steam.
  1. blow/let off steam, Informal. to give vent to one's repressed emotions, especially by talking or behaving in an unrestrained manner: Don't take her remarks too seriously—she was just blowing off steam.

Origin of steam

before 1000; Middle English steme, Old English stēam; cognate with Dutch stoom
Related formssteam·less, adjectiveout·steam, verb (used with object)pre·steam, adjective, verb (used with object)un·steamed, adjectiveun·steam·ing, adjective

Examples from the Web for steamed

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples


    The Spenders

    Harry Leon Wilson

  • This also holds true in the case of puddings that are to be steamed.

    Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4

    Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

  • Mr Pancks put on his hat that moment, and steamed away to Pentonville.

    Little Dorrit

    Charles Dickens



    Theodor Hertzka

  • Of course, everybody thought she must see them, but still she steamed westward.

British Dictionary definitions for steamed


  1. the gas or vapour into which water is changed when boiled
  2. the mist formed when such gas or vapour condenses in the atmosphere
  3. any vaporous exhalation
  4. informal power, energy, or speed
  5. get up steam
    1. (of a ship, etc) to work up a sufficient head of steam in a boiler to drive an engine
    2. informalto go quickly
  6. let off steam informal to release pent-up energy or emotions
  7. under one's own steam without the assistance of others
  8. Australian slang cheap wine
  9. (modifier) driven, operated, heated, powered, etc, by steama steam radiator
  10. (modifier) treated by steamsteam ironed; steam cleaning
  11. (modifier) jocular old-fashioned; outmodedsteam radio
  1. to emit or be emitted as steam
  2. (intr) to generate steam, as a boiler, etc
  3. (intr) to move or travel by steam power, as a ship, etc
  4. (intr) informal to proceed quickly and sometimes forcefully
  5. to cook or be cooked in steam
  6. (tr) to treat with steam or apply steam to, as in cleaning, pressing clothes, etc
See also steam up

Word Origin

Old English; related to Dutch stoom steam, perhaps to Old High German stioban to raise dust, Gothic stubjus dust

Word Origin and History for steamed



Old English steam "vapor, fume," from Proto-Germanic *staumaz (cf. Dutch stoom), of unknown origin. Steam age first attested 1941. Steam heat as a method of temperature control recorded from 1904.



Old English stemen, stymen "to emit a scent or odor," from the root of steam (n.). Slang meaning "to make angry" is from 1922. Related: Steamed; steaming.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

steamed in Science


  1. Water in its gaseous state, especially at a temperature above the boiling point of water (above 100°C, or 212°F, at sea level). See Note at vapor.
  2. A mist of condensed water vapor.

Idioms and Phrases with steamed

