steams

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of steam.

   The kettle steams loudly whenever the water reaches a boil.

   The chef steams the fish over a bed of fresh herbs.

   Note

   One form, two directions. With an object, someone applies steam to something else: a cook steams vegetables, or a crew steams a locomotive to raise its pressure. Without an object, the thing itself gives off vapor: a kettle steams, or a bowl of soup steams on the table. Whether an object follows tells you which reading is meant.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of steam.

   The engineer compared the saturated and superheated steams described in the manual.

   Wet and dry steams behave differently inside the same turbine system.

   Note

   A plural that exists only because steam is usually a mass noun. You speak of steam, not a steam. The -s appears when separate kinds or grades are being set side by side, such as saturated and superheated steams or wet and dry steams, and that comparing use belongs mostly to engineering and technical prose. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, as in a kettle that steams.

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